The March of the Dragon
by Kaelander
Summary: The nuclear holocaust of Earth, rated M
1. Apocalypse

Author: Kaelander

Warning: Massively depressing and tends to be gruesome

Summary: The nuclear holocaust triggered by the creation of supernatural humans...

The plot tends to go back and forth in time, so you might get confused....it all makes sense towards the end though

Disclaimer: I do not own or make up the song references or lyrics throughout the story

_A world stands shattered from the barrage of war and hatred._

_A lone wanderer walks across a nuclear wasteland, with only her memories left behind._

_A city creeps silently with the infestation of abominations and mutations._

_A man lurks in the shadows with no sense of remorse or pity._

_A boy watches as the world passes away into chaos and destruction._

_And when we suffer the most, we look to the darkness for refuge. When all we have left is our insanity, we look to our past and remember what it was like back then._

_In the end, we blame the futility of the human race._

_Welcome to my world._

**Chapter 1: Apocalypse**

"_Love is shooting someone down two kilometres away in the knee caps using an advanced sniper rifle…"_

A lonely house stands in the middle of a city, weathered down and corroded by volatile radiation. A solitary and whiskered rat scuttled through the rooms, searching desperately for a trace of food. After finding nothing in the kitchen, despite the discoloured pictures of consumables, it enters the lounge room. The sofas had been thoroughly damaged and the pictures on the wall were cracked and bent to a large angle. The rat climbs to the top of a shelf and stops to observe the view from the high point, little does it know about the deteriorated book hanging on the edge of the furniture. The rumble of life sends the book flying down from the shelf and it lands with a large smack on some creaking and aged machines. The loud sound sends the petrified rat fleeing out the abandoned house.

The book happened to land on a cassette player, and proceeded to play the next song in line:

_I see trees of green........ red roses too  
I see em bloom..... for me and for you  
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world._

_I see skies of blue..... clouds of white  
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights  
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world._

_The colours of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky  
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by  
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do  
They're really sayin......i love you._

_I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow  
They'll learn much more.....than Ill never know  
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world_

_The colours of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky  
Are there on the faces.....of people ..going by  
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do  
They're really sayin I ....love....you._

_I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow  
You know their gonna learn  
A whole lot more than Ill never know  
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world  
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world._

Rusting rails, withered trees and rotten buildings. Dust only disturbed by the polluted wind, abnormal footprints marked within the broken pavement, a whole street in frozen turmoil. Decaying corpse of a twisted animal on the side of the road, shattered glass sprayed over the black asphalt, only a single sight in a destroyed civilization.

Buildings worn down from sheer bombardment, a sky full of smoky clouds and putrid colours, nothing stirs under the shadowing sun. A world thrown into a living nightmare, a city pulled into the grasp of chaos and insanity, hell has come to the real world.

The sky seems to darken more every day; infected rats tread along the mould of a garden. The park is drained out to grayness, flowers are absorbed from life and the air is full of coughing gas lamps. Trees hang in agony, leafless and stripped of nourishing bark. The water is distilled to a murky mood, blood is scraped on the transparent glass and stones are stained from black oil. Ashes cover the walls of homes, corpses lie in hidden rooms and spilled poison drenches the bleached clothes.

The birds no longer sing along the cherry trees, the fields are blown dry to a barren wasteland. Untouched human rooms and blemished food decomposed to waste. Farms are torn to dust, houses overgrown in weeds and shops excavated of potential usefulness. The community is drenched in nihilism and the world is shrouded in the horror of another age.

The local mall is swept clean of all humanity; traces of spontaneous commercialism decorate the musty hallways of the complex. The dark corners are inhabited by abominations and vicious creatures vying between themselves over the scraps of food. Chairs are toppled over, and barely disturbed afterwards; walls are scratched and bent, while the windows are all broken and smashed both from the inside and the outside. All life is drained away into the hole of decimation.

The corner shop is nothing more than a pile of rubble in the wreckage of a whole metropolis. The road is carved away from the retreating screeches of vehicles; dusty patterns cover the wooden furniture that is still preserved. Dried blood is painted on the opposite street, along the stone grey wall. And the eyes of treacherous monsters watch and hunt from the shadows of the landscape.

The dead leaves rustling are the only sounds breaking the natural silence of the park. The grass is shaded to a putrid brown, the pavement is covered in wild weeds and the statues have been worn down to a pile of tainted marble. A desecrated well stands to the corner of a barren natural park, vile water stands still, brooding the creations of volatile beings. The seeds of life have been vanquished; the act of rejuvenation has been compromised by the vulgar environment. Everything dies in the end, and nothing spawns from the ashes but more of the imaginative horror.

A desperate street, houses on both sides turned derelict and nothing stirs in the presence of predators. The monsters crouch and creak around the opening of urban buildings, there are about five of them. They are hunting someone. A tiny whimper of a lost child in the distance, and the cry of hungry monsters in response. The human child runs as fast as he can, but no one is here to save him today, not this time. The monsters from hell, their faces stripped like corpses and ligaments mutated all over the body, attack and pounce on the defenseless child. The ghouls survive another day with food in their twisted stomachs.

Standing on the highest building, alone and watching the world in empathetic regret. He watches with vindication and respect, the power of the destruction of the world had been witnessed by his own eyes. He looks down on the world around him, eyes glowing like the sun. He counts the atrocities of the ruined utopia and remembers his once precious world. The beasts of the urban wasteland cower in fear of him; they hide away in their holes at the sight of his presence. Black clothes cover his body; a hood is stretched over his head like an abyss and blackens out all light within. Only the eyes can see be seen from the outside of the cowl. A long black cape wavers in the toxic wind. And the fury of a mythical beast is locked deep down within the hatred of the unknown assailant.

He hunts down the creatures and monsters, he tries to make the world around him a better place, although slowly and to an endless futility. The infected ones would be eradicated, almost how his kind was once eradicated. He knew that everything couldn't be reversed, but things could slowly be made better. A new world could be formed from the infertile ashes of this broken earth. You only needed the power to do it.

The grey and dull cityscape below the dark hero motioned little life, as he stood tall watching the wretches of the terrible area. The sun was but a mere bright shadow in the sea of smoky clouds. Little wind breezed past him, even at his altitude. The moment was almost frozen with the world at the hands of an apocalypse and the dark assailant standing and watching it go by.

And when movement stirred in the dangerous world below, he spun rapidly around and left his high perch. The horrors will become the haunted, and the insane creatures will be put to rest. The dark one appeared from the shadows of behind the highest building, on the ground floor. It seemed like he floated along the ceramic floor, past the withered plant pots and the broken glass doors. A black ghost with eyes like a blazing fire, reaching out from the madness of the void.

And the monsters wouldn't know until the last moment. The creatures wouldn't run until they were the last of their kind standing. The sun was setting, despite the similarity between the dawn and the dusk in this weather. The night was coming; more horrors of the underworld would appear in the darkness. But then again so would he, and then the others would be on the watch to protect their own kind.

Because everyday and every moment was a battle to survive, it was a war against everyone else. Mutant, monster, human, you were alone against the world and fighting to defeat the challenges of life.

The dark one moved closer silently towards the position of ghouls, their scathed faces and bloodshot eyes kept focused on the stash of salted and moldy chip packets they had found. The hands were covered in leather and clothes that had melted into their skin, with flesh crevasses and desecrated cuts all over. The nails sharp and long in case of a fight or for use as a tool. The rest of the body was same, a walking corpse with body organs left on the external side of the body, ligaments deformed and flesh mixed up all over the body. It was the screwed up anatomy of a human.

A silver dagger flew through the air and penetrated the skull of stranded ghoul, one that had strayed too far from his family. He fell lifeless to the ground, and every ghoul was still unaware.

The ghouls proceeded forward to another room, scrunching on the chips loudly. There was barely any light in this room, with the scraping of diluted cloudy light refracting through the closed blinds. Only a few rays light displayed on the opposite wall, the ghouls proceeded with caution. There could be enemy ghouls or enemy species living the lack of brightness. Most of the monsters and threats were nocturnal.

The light flickered; a shadow flew past and disturbed the rays. The ghouls froze on the spot; only the suffering breaths of the respiratory system bulging on the backs of the ghouls could be heard. Wheezing and puffing loudly, making their hiding positions vulnerable to all hunters. The only thing that made them deadly was their appearance and their large numbers.

But what happens when one does not fear their appearance?

The darkness swirled nearby by and two metal blades appeared, the eyes remained hidden and only darkness moved forward. The ghouls couldn't see, they couldn't hear and they didn't know. Five of the ghouls were felled, with their body parts rumbling on the ground as they landed. The beasts were only beginning to realize they were being picked off, their numbers were thinning.

So what happens when someone, who relies on the strength of numbers, is left alone in the darkness?

They flee, to regroup or just run from the predator that stalks them. They leave, to find a better place or where darkness doesn't kill like this one does. Or they panic, in fear and chaos. They leave their remaining few seconds of life up to havoc, and watch in blindness the demise of all those they knew in the short span of mutated and struggling agony. They watch as the blade of the night stabs down into their exposed and bulging heads. Darkness leaves the building, leaving its mark of corpses in its wake. The others might feed on his killing; they might wander what manner of evil could kill so many. Darkness has left the building, but it never arrived in the first place. The shadows haunt the small massacre, the rage lies diminished in the bodies of the new demented human race.

The beach is littered with the debris of once gigantic vessels. The infected seaweed and dead fishes cover the stretches of vomit coloured sand. Oil spills contaminate the lagoons and sandy ponds. The corpses of crabs and birds float on the vile ocean surface. A rotting stench arises from the ocean water. The nearby trees are torn down and hollowed lifeless plants are scattered on the shores of the beach. In the distance the ravaged bodies of humans and animals are seen floating in the wreckage of a fleeing boat, over sized sharks feast on the drowned and the carrion birds devour the floating bodies.

A monument stands tall in the middle of a plaza, still standing despite the shattering of a civilization. A soldier stands heroically with the flag of a lost nation, words unintelligible lie carved below in the silver plating. Banners of protest and words of revoke are left littered on the stone paths of the once popular tourist destination. The ribbons of rebellion are scattered across the cobblestones of the landmark, the buildings surround it like dead watchers worn of age. War has brought this world to its demise, and war is human nature in the struggle of all life.

Nightfall has come to the city. He stalks around, as the dark one that all fear, like the imminent destruction of their race. A prey is chosen, and a prey is murdered under the rainbow of a murky black night. The streaks of silver blades are seen in the window of a once abundant house, the screams of a dying hound is heard later, the cry of a contaminated animal put to rest. The calls of the wolves are heard later, mourning the death of a comrade and the inevitable fear of their tormentor.

The humans struggle in the midst of all carnage. They wander stranded in the destruction of their city, slowly picked off for food by the hunters and monsters. Their only hope is the dark one, that he would protect them, and that once he has defended their life, would be merciful towards them. There had been rumors of the dark one murdering humans as well, even though most had been claimed as criminals or even infected by the radioactive waste. In the end, it was all up to chance who survived.

An isolated house stands in the centre of a street. One of the few to be left standing. A large withered tree stands tall, yet dying in a sick grey colour in the front. All other foliage had diminished away around the front garden, the fences had fallen down and the gravel had spread all over the street. Putrid radioactive dust fills the bed sheets, everything is coated in light grey particles, the fish tank had transformed into a harborage for gigantic mosses. The flickering lights are now dead, all energy and hope had been cut off. No light in the house of darkness.

Midnight and the zombies cry agony of a lost world. A slight breeze brings in the sheltering warm breeze; the beasts cower in the comfort, alienated from the soft feelings in life. The dark one clambers across the roof of a warehouse in ruins, he watches the moon above him in dismay. The sight of beauty in a world of ugliness. The beauty was so far out of reach, and should we reach it, we would only contaminate it and spread our plague onto more worlds. He stretches his arms; there is little sleep in a world of endless nightmares. The muscles tense, the power of a hundred armies is calmed and the night is left alone again. The cape waves and disappears along into the shadows.

He touches the dust covered bench with his gloved finger, and remembers a time when there used to be a person sitting here. Watching him and smiling gratefully. Past memories, past pains, there is no point dwelling on them.

Even if the past is the only thing he has left. Because there is no future in this nuclear Armageddon. There is only the waste and destruction. And fiends that spawned from our madness.

Moonlight is the only guide; the sun is on the other side of the world. And even when it is here, it is only a shadow of the past, clouded by the pollution of our deeds. The dawn slowly arrives, only the nocturnal creatures can sense its arrival. Everything else assumes the day is night, and the night is day. Only difference is the species that are active in the different time periods.

Nightfall carries a heavy burden. And the dawn shines it away. Only for the darkness to return at the end of all things. The sun is again perched in the sky like a black sun glooming down below over the denizens of a ruined world. The dark one disappears away from the glow of the unholy star, into the murky depths of the abyss he hides. Where time has no meaning, and where the images are sometimes even more real than reality. And he endures, with horror and courage. But he will stand to the end, even if he will fall into the spiral of insanity along the way. So young, yet so scarred.

_And we know not the horrors of agony_

Dead carcass impaled on barbed fence, bird corpse hanging from electrical lines. Scattered bones of a mammal fill the dust of something's front lawn. Rusted nails lie still deteriorating in the overgrown grass. And the bodies that haven't been consumed yet wreak the stench of the numerous dead. The dead piles overfill the landfills.

A scraped sign on the side of the road, displaying '2015: The End of the World'. A mutated rabbit scurries in the shade of the bent sign. Wild eyes cower in the protection of bushes, wary of the predators stalking it. Poisonous berries flower the bush and thorns spike out on the branches. The sun reflects off the shiny leaves and out onto the darkness of the woods.

The day cycle is once again, those left alive rejoice in the fragments of life left behind. So many days lost, and yet so few to come. Earth on the brink of extinction, and all because of its nature, its human nature. The dark one remembers it all; he was part of the downfall of humanity. Yet he tries not to mourn the losses, because there could have been no other way. In the end, it all would have happened the same way. In the end, the nature of humanity would bite back on its darkest hour.

Welcome to the brave new world, the world of the eternal nights and living nightmares. Welcome to the apocalypse of Earth.


	2. The Death of an Angel

**Chapter 2: The Death of an Angel**

"_We stand before you as soldiers of a broken world; as shattered fragments from the depths of our own greed and the essence of hatred…"_

Rough waves thrashed against our boat. They sent the stability of the vehicle shaking around, toppling every moment and spraying the salty breeze into my face. Another thrashing after another. We were rocking like a cradle about to swing from deteriorated tension.

It wasn't a surprise most of the soldiers had already succumbed to sea sickness. I watched the pale faces turn into the ocean and release their past lunch onto the violent storm. My fingers strengthened their hold around the metallic and slippery railings, feet crunched into the steel deck. I had no intention of losing balance to an unexpected wave.

The drenched flag of Australia blew harshly in the wind, upon its stained mast above us near the captain's deck. A lightening streaked in the crack of the clouds. My eyes wondered around the scene, silently observing the violent environment I was strongly clinging onto.

The soldiers had all retired to their bunkers; it was a medium sized ship. Not built for military combat, only for transportation. We were only reinforcements, not the assault force. Most of these people weren't even soldiers. Simple citizens thrown into the chaos of war during dire times. They weren't conscripted to be here, most were only defending our border back home. They were here because they understood the critical moment of our human history.

She grasped my hand tightly; the icy wind flushed past us and sent shivers down our spine. A freezing hand touching a furiously burning hand. I turned my head to see past the hood covering my head, and focused my gaze on the girl suffering immensely from the cold glare. Why was she even here?

There were a lot of answers for that. The short one was that she was a devastating weapon, and like me was desperately needed to combat our enemies across the oceans. We had been sent along with the soldiers, why? Because we were more dangerous than them. Because we were the secret weapon, one of the few surviving abnormal humans living in this terrible war.

The waves clashed straight into the boat side again. We jumped up over the wave and crash landed again back into the ocean surface. Water splashed everywhere, the cold drying up instantly all over our bodies. I focused my energy and concentration on the living body next to me, and she relaxed her tense shoulders.

The distance, I could not see any land. In this storm, I couldn't see much but the waging thunders and the havoc of the sea. My mouth was dry, too much salt and not enough water. I blinked to wash out the dry residue collecting in my eyes.

Another blast from the clouds. The girl next to me stepped closer to me carefully, choosing her footing carefully. She also had no intention of falling onto the wet surface. Her arm wove her way up my arm, and entangled itself closely. Her hair was drenched despite my efforts and despite the hood she wore closely over her face.

There was little light in this storm, except for the flashing lights of the boat and the sudden streaks of lightening. Only hours full of clouds hung in our midst.

Why was I here? Because I knew I had to be here. On this day and age, the world needed me the most. When the heralds have decayed and when the horns of war blow tightly in the rage of furious nations. When our world is threatened by another holocaust.

We looked at each other silently, the wind brewing our clothes around and the sea spray blinding us for short moments. Trying to decipher what the other was thinking. Her blue eyes sparkling in the shadow of the storm, and the soft face reflecting in the rage of the sea. What did she see in me?

Tormenting waves continue to pound against our vessel. Leaving us little peace and barely any means of rest. Serenity had no place where I was.

Her head leant against my arm. Her hood touched the material of my coat. My rain drenched coat, her rain drenched hood. Our ocean drenched bodies. She inched closer, searching somewhere in the figure beside her for some support. Some emotional and physical support.

The only thing we can do in this war is support each other. Lost lives with so much in common. Stranded souls, so different in this human world. It was partially why we were together, there was no where else to go for us. We had been ostracized from our societies, because we were different, because we were dangerous. They fear us like we are monsters.

And perhaps, because of this war. We are in some way monsters.

She rubbed her head slightly and drops of water dripped down between us. Eventually washed back into the ocean, and then thrown in spitting barrages back at the couple standing motionlessly on the deck of a washed out boat.

We crashed into another wave. A soldier inside the bunkers could be heard spewing violently. We ignored the slight convulsing pains of the man. And she tightened her hold on me; I was the only thing she had left in the world.

What did I have apart from her? I had my own imagination to run and hide to, but how often did that happen? She often found it hard to understand me, even to the point where it became frustrating.

I was the only link, maybe the only reason she had left to live in a world of deceit and hatred. To leave out those that are not pure human. The soldiers didn't mind, they appreciated our company. Our very presence increased their chance of survival. But when the bullets go flying and the bodies start blowing, there's no one left to save yourself, but you and your instincts.

We aren't here to provide a comforting aura for the citizens formed rapidly into soldiers. We were here to end this invasion, to provide a strong support in a tortured nation. To be involved in one of the many wars around our planet. To join the billions already dead because of greed and human nature.

Was there any point in going? Was there any point in not going?

We would die anyway if we didn't go. And I would prefer to die a soldier on the battlefield, than die a coward hiding in someone's basement while the bombing runs occur. Lightening, followed by the crowd silencer.

She nudged me slightly, she had enough. She wanted to go back inside, where we wouldn't have to face the waves and the depressing scene of an enraged ocean. Where we could block out the images of a world dying at our fingertips. Where we could prepare for the worst days of our life, tomorrow.

Tomorrow is when we hit the ash burnt beached of India. And it was there, would we face the real terror of war.

We stepped back carefully towards our room; she gripped me for support the whole way not trusting her own feet. She always felt warmer when she was closer to me, even when I wasn't trying.

It could be my unique presence that seemed to make people feel slightly more relaxed, or slightly more confused. My hand pulsated the heat of fire and she basked in its warmth. Nothing burnt, but much heated.

We stepped into the shelter of the room, windows slammed with the bombarding of water outside. Sounds of the waves pummeling our transport. A small room shaking in tremor and response. We didn't bother with the lights; they would probably go out at next wave crash. She closed the door behind us, and looked deep into my eyes.

She wanted something tonight.

Before she has to face the real meaning of hell.

* * *

A brisk morning, clouds all vanished and a bright blue sky overhead. Still no sight of land, but we must be close. I'm alone standing on the tip of the boat, watching the calm rushes of water flow behind us. My hood is sitting off my back; I was letting the fresh air soothe my head. Samantha was still asleep.

It was too early to be awake, the sun had only risen half an hour ago. A seagull in the distant sky, a sign we were getting close. A soldier wandered around behind me on the deck, unaware of my presence and searching for the same solidarity and peace. It was nice to have a quiet morning after a night of noisy barraging. It keeps you awake until you are caught in its pattern, and then it's like a soft rocking boat with a louder impact. She makes it a lot easier, to sleep with all the disturbance. And she knows that, because I make her sleep more comfortably as well.

Azure sky blanketing the background, silver shiny boat hovering over the ocean. My hair shifts in the caressing wind. The flag above me is dead, barely flickering in the breeze. My body temperature is held steadily; nothing will randomly fluctuate this morning. I watch the cloudless sky, staring into space and savoring the silent moment.

The horizon stretches onwards, beyond the eye can see. Until the sky meets the sea, and only the shade of flourishing blue is visible.

_A sophisticated flower garden, with a tall tree standing in the middle. Leaves in shades of green, auburn, brown and yellow colour the tree standing isolated in a sea of flowers. A white picket fence extends around the garden and towards the house located at the back of the garden. An empty roads stands on the other end. _

_We were outside her front house. _

_There weren't any benches here; her parents were paranoid of people lingering in their front garden for too long, like it was a socializing park. The main city could be seen from her garden, the tall buildings and skyscrapers._

_She bent down and picked up a flower. A yellow one with large petals. Looked up at me and smiled with joy. I stared at her puzzled; did she want me to do something with the flower?_

_Standing on the edge of a garden full of flourishing plants. A beautiful girl standing in front of me. Time feels paused, only the wind breaks the moment. The tree quivers in the wind, the leaves blow to the ground and land softly. _

_She touches my hand, still staring at my eyes. I look down and she places the flower in my hand. With her other hand she slowly curls my fingers to grasp the stem. A smirk appears and disappears on her face as she turns around and looks for another flower. I stand still, clutching the flower in my frozen hand._

_The sun is in the middle of the sky. A sound behind me in the house indicates someone was cooking in the kitchen._

_I turn around to react to the sound. Steam is flowing out of the kitchen window, a flavored scent wafts in my direction._

"_Ahem, pay attention to me not my mum's cooking!"_

_I spun back to face the source of the voice. She grinned at me playfully and handed me another flower. _

_When she had finished her flower picking, she led me to a hill near her house. We stood together at the top of the hill, grass flowing around us and snaking around our shoes. She picked each petal off the flowers and pilled them up in one hand._

_A breeze flowed by and collected all the petals along the way. Yellow, red and black flakes flew and spun in the air around before us. They danced around us and fluttered like butterflies as they eventually glided down the hill and into the haze beyond._

_She clasped her hand over mine._

_And we watched the colours slowly turn to grey._

The boat crunched against the beach. Samantha nearly toppled over the railing from the hard impact; I gripped her arm to steady her. The soldiers dropped from the edge and landed in the shallow water. They waded to the shore and unloaded any equipment they carried.

Our turn, I dropped into the water with my cape covered around my body and Samantha followed me onto the beach. Water splashed onto my body and was evaporated instantly. We moved through the water and then hit the sand; the soldiers unpacked around us and equipped travelling gear. There were about thirty of them altogether, excluding me and Samantha. I watched the captain of the battalion order them around.

I just stood nearby in the midst of all things and looked partially interested. The wind picked up and I covered my face with my hood again, she copied me and both looked like two wraiths waiting in the middle of the beach.

The captain approached us and opened up a map for us to peer on. "I've already briefed the other soldiers while we were on the boat; basically we are to head up along the coast. Reach this outpost here, obtain some vehicles and then drive inland towards New Delhi. We'll receive more orders from there and the trip should take around two days….should we not encounter any enemy forces. By the way, I'm Captain Epsilon…"

"Matthias…" I spoke one word.

"I'm Samantha."

Epsilon nodded at both of us, "Alright, we should head out now, the trip to the outpost will take all day."

The soldiers began marching out. We followed behind them like silent guardians watching and observing around us cautiously. The soldiers would have thought we were their vindictive guardian angels, black hooded wraiths following all their steps. And running into the heart of hell.

The coast was long; the same sandy beach stretched north, the direction we were heading. Tropical rainforests were on our right and the Indian Ocean on our left.

We marched along with the soldiers. Everyone was basically silent, only the trudging of boots could be heard. Only the waves along the beach broke the silence. Birds occasionally would fly over us and swoop around the trees. I would watch even the slightest motions as we travelled.

I was walking at the back of the line, behind the last soldier. And Samantha was next to me, not straying too far away. I didn't watch her too much; I was too focused on the scenery around me. The elongated branches, the draping vines and the soils of the Indian coast.

We eventually reached a set of cliffs that elevated us from the ocean level. The captain led us up and next to the cliff edge, with the ocean waves crashing the rocks below. I stood closest to edge, with Samantha on the tree side. I noticed she would occasionally glance in my direction worriedly. I would sometimes get too close to the edge, usually out of my own curiosity. I was curious about the sight below, and what it would be like to fall all the way down.

But I didn't intend on trying anytime soon. So, I had to resort to imagining the fall and what experience or thoughts in life could ever commit me ever to even seriously think about jumping.

Wave crashed after another, and the trees sighed slowly in the wind. Samantha and I carried little baggage, that was the soldier's duty. We were only teenagers after all, slowly entering our early twenties.

We weren't built for the military, or as soldiers. We were built as mass weapons of war, out of chance and genetic structure we had been created and harbingers of destruction on this unsavory world of humans. I had been born this way, so did Samantha.

I met an old man once, who used to be human, until the event of the century changed him and the world. It was then that he became from a simple farmer into a famous celebrity. Unfortunately he is dead now; the war has toiled on everyone around the world. Some seeming they would rather be dead than face this horrible war.

Overgrown fungus and mysterious plant shrubs. Samantha studied a nearby plant while I stood nearby with eyes searching for any hint of deception. We had stopped for a short break and for the soldiers to rest after the hike.

The first outpost was in sight along the coast, but it would still take a few hours to reach it. From what I could see, it still appeared to be in one piece. Nothing had ruined it yet and nothing had yet attacked it. Still though, we would be wary. No sight in this war could be trusted one hundred percent.

The world had lost too much already and suffered too much.

We set off again towards our destination. Our usual places in the lines of marching infantry. I walked at the back with Samantha.

A single tuft of dark grey smoke on the far horizon. Something had burnt far off, and left a mark in the pale and pure sky.

One of the many atrocities that had been committed and had yet still to arrive.

_He stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean surface. High up almost fifty metres from the water level, and looking down unsteadily into the fall below. The wind shivered slightly and we she watched pale as her brother was about to commit suicide._

"_Please come back!!" she yelled with horror._

_It was just us three standing near the cliff towards the ocean. Her, her brother and me, the bystander watching the whole event without any partial importance. He didn't listen or respond, just continued to stare into the void below him. The swirling mass of waters and edgy rocks pointing at the sky. _

_He was here because he found no hope left. Because he had finally realized the futility of life and of the humans. Because he finally understands that the end is near and he is better off dying than living in this treacherous world. He wants to die to put the rest of the burden and responsibilities on the shoulders of the living. We must continue and strive to preserve life, not those that break too easily and fall to their deaths._

_And that's why he was here, because he believed that._

"_Oh God…Please for crying out loud….do you realize what you are doing?"_

_She continued to shout at the frozen depressed statue standing on the edge of anxiety. The wind stirred again and the trees beside us brushed against each other. I was silent against the grass edge, watching the scene play out in front of me._

_And he moved, looked back at us with tears in his eyes. And stepped forward._

_Plummeted down and he vanished from our sight at the top of the cliff. We couldn't move for the next few seconds. Trying to register exactly what happened. _

_Her face exploded into my chest, I was dumbstruck watching the absent ledge in despair while she cried into me. I held her while she dug furiously and her tears melted into my shirt._

_Her brother wasn't the first or the last. Those people that couldn't bear the horror of civilization crumbling around them. They wouldn't dare face the agony of the world burning, so they departed from it and decided to leave it to those with the will to live. _

_Were we any better than those that died? Or have we done worse?_

_Probably not, considering the events and atrocities that have led to this war._

Dusk is falling. The Allied Outpost was small, just a small warehouse for artillery, vehicles and an infantry outpost for other soldiers. It was based near the ocean side with the cliff bordering one side of it and the forest along the opposite side. I climbed the highest watchtower with Samantha and we stood together silently at the highest point observing the view below.

The winds started to rise again. And our dark capes billowed in the wind while the lights in the sky began to fade away. I gazed into the twilight around us, the setting ocean and the murky rainforest depths.

The conflict that lay ahead and the real rage we would discover in the heart of man. The artificial lights turned in the outpost and soldiers could be seen wandering around camp. The darkness beyond the outpost walls darkened as each minute passed.

Night in this corner of the Earth. Daylight in another brighter corner. We continued to watch the day pass around us, looking from the highest point like guardian wraiths of an unknown abyss.

Close to midnight we were directed by an over nervous soldier to our accommodation and were given some food for the night. Silence in the shadow of our room, single bed like she had requested. Two windows, one to the ocean and the other to the activity of the camp. Not that much could be seen in this darkness.

Another night in the haze of darkness. In the silence of our lives, and as we watched our final moments of life wander away.

She hugged me closely that night, because like everyone else she understood the importance of our hour. We all realized that these could be our last moments to savor in life; it was like standing at the edge of the cliff and knowing that you're going to fall. No matter how much you resist or don't want to fall.

Morbid dreams and futile hopes. Seeds of tomorrow's demise plant itself in my mind. Every moment I change to suit the needs of the current world we live in. I can see time pass away in as our lives are instigated in the futility of life.

And I see how lost we are in the cycle of emotions.

_Crowds hauled together in confusion and chaos. We moved close together while rioting bodies shoved around us. Banners protesting how the world was revolving. _

_I looked hastily around me to find a clearing. She gripped my hand harder as someone behind me pushed me forward and nearly isolated me from her. I pushed back closer to her and then we moved ahead together to reach a safe spot._

_People had been trampled to death that day. People running wild like cows stumbled over the streets shouting their will and criticism. _

"_Why haven't we learned our lesson from the past two wars?"_

_I pulled her up beside me and we sat on the elevated small platform below a statue. The sea of angry pacifists swarmed around us, their signs and fists waving throughout the air. The rooftops of buildings were populated with other protestors or spectators watching the day go by as more men and women joined in the cause for global peace._

_They knew they could make the world a better place by having their say. Unfortunately the fate of the world wasn't in the hands of their words._

_They were in the hands of the super humans and those that controlled them._

_A sign passed by our refuge with the words "Our last generation on Earth?"_

_They were scared about the end of the world, scared to see their children forced to fight a new war. A war that would be worse than any other fought. With nuclear weapons, chemical warfare and the new discovery of the "Mage"._

_They would try as hard as they could to stop this war. Super humans could be used as tools of peace and not just war. There didn't need to be a war._

_The fate of human nature is too susceptible to corruption and greed to stop the inevitable possibility of war and bloodshed on our planet._

The vehicle wheels were rolling along the mud roads. We had left the outpost at dawn and boarded three transport vehicles and one tank that would accompany us. I sat with Samantha at the back of the first truck; a few soldiers were in the same vehicle with us and remained anti social with the mysterious young avengers.

I watched the trees and large bushes of plants pass behind us through the open end of the limitary truck. Samantha satisfied her boredom with staring at my distracted face most of the time.

The truck behind us obediently followed us wherever we turned, as did the truck behind that one and so on. The sky was beginning to turn smokier around here. How safe was this road?

Booms and flashes could be heard and seen through the thick rainforest trees. The soldiers became edgier as each hour passed and signs of skirmishes and raids could be identified.

Our truck stopped. And we were no where near our final destination. Samantha looked at me with wonder and a slight sense of fear in her eyes. The soldiers gripped their weapons a bit tighter. A signal was sent from the front of the truck to the soldiers near us. One spoke out loud to his portable radio:

"Epsilon, this is Private Rand. Our driver says that the town ahead of us has been recently bombed out and said he saw some enemy forces moving in the distance. Orders sir?"

Static blurred from the radio, and the response, "Private Rand, you have orders to for your group to search and scout the town ahead of us. We cannot risk taking the trucks and the tank into an ambush zone or a mine zone. Take the mages with you, you'll need them. Epsilon out."

Rand looked up at us and then at his soldiers. He nodded and they all moved out holding their rifles steady and their helmets placed on their heads. We clambered out behind the soldiers, our hoods covering our faces but our eyes were wearier than ever. Samantha gripped her fists ready for anything that could spring suddenly.

All on alert and weapons ready to fire, we stepped forward from the truck. Soldiers led the way while we steadied behind them. My heart began pounding so loud I could hear it clearly.

A wasted town lay before us, houses crumbled by the shattering of bombs and smoke rising from the extinguished fires. A few half burned down trees were located around the trees, and the main road was a mess full of debris and wet mud. Our group silently split into two separate groups without much communication between anyone.

We were dead silent. I realized all of a sudden things had been going smoothly and relaxed, until now when we finally faced the real reason we were on this inscripted vacation.

I stepped into the rubble lonely, my eyes wandering over the piles of trash searching for any traps or mines. I could barely detect any forms of explosives below ground, part of my tiny arcane prowess. It was more than the average soldier could do anyway.

Samantha was still in sight, nothing had yet happened to us. I moved away a dirty car door and leaned down to pick up a decapitated plush doll. Head had been blown off, while the rest of the body was just covered in ash and bits of a grenade.

Australian soldiers ahead of me, searching silently though the rubble for any evidence of ambush or sabotage on our vehicles. Their minds focused on the scene around them, and their fingers trembling with the knowledge of fear.

I looked up at the sky and saw the puffs of black clouds fly overhead. The sun was blackened and shaded out in that moment, and a bitter darkness fell upon the bombed out town.

Shots scattered across in out direction. A soldier fell to his knees ahead of me and others scrambled for cover. Critical confusion and I fell to the ground, sweating in realization and watching carefully for any other gun shots around me.

I peeked over my cover, which in the short delay of me crawling to the closest safe spot, happened to be a heavily damaged car. I saw soldiers on my side firing into the forest ahead at nothing. Over on the other side I saw Samantha sitting tightly against a brick wall that had managed to survive all the bombardment.

She had her eyes shut tightly. She wouldn't open them now, not when she was so inexperienced. Not when her mind was still innocent and the image before her would scar her for life.

Dead child lay near her feet; hands mutilated and dried blood covering her face. Hair swept all over the head, and her legs twisted around that bones stuck out from the angle. I couldn't reach her at the moment; she was alone with the young corpse for now. Bullets penetrated the car I was hiding behind.

The booms of mortars could be heard somewhere ahead in the forest and the later smashes of the explosives on already destroyed buildings.

I left my position and ran forward towards my soldiers. They kept firing blindly into the forest; at least their firing was forcing the enemy to cover themselves. My ears felt deafened by all the noise and I could feel a trickle of blood down my forehead.

Mortar hit the ground a few metres away from me. I hit the ground dazed and vision blurred. Slowly it came back, only to see a Private Rand blown to a million bits in front of me. Flesh was stuck to my skin and red blood was sprayed over my clothes.

I looked back into the haze of the forest firing line, beyond the town. And closed my eyes, to hear everything.

The desperate struggle of the infantry firing behind stone walls in the town, the petrified girl sitting alone in the ruins of a family home, past memories haunting her again. And the enemy sniping from the camouflage of the foliage.

I could do this, I was unarmed but I was the most powerful weapon here on this battlefield. I needed to move, I needed to get up and move over there.

I needed to burn them all.

But I also needed to be ready. Ready? How can I be bloody ready? My mind argued over itself while the bomb shells went off around me and a soldier in the distance collapsed to the dirt ground.

I pushed off the stone wall I was leaning against, and my legs pounded the hard dirt as I ran in fury and fear at the hidden enemy.

_Faces staring at me, some glares, most looks of curiosity. A senile man walked by openly voicing his opinions about everyone he saw. I gave him the look to 'keep walking and don't say a thing' as he passed me. _

_The mall was busy today, Sunday afternoon with groups of people arriving for 'socializing'. I was alone though, staring out from my solitary wall at the public that passed by. _

_Children and families walked by, some recognizing me, others ignoring the anti social teenager. My eyes observed the people around me, judged each person as they continued with their busy lives._

_Their normal lives._

_I leaned closer against the unclean wall, probably chewing gum stuck along it, but I didn't mind. A group of teenage girls stopped their conversation and stared in wonder as they recognized the famous celebrity all alone. My glares sent them scurrying off._

_I didn't want to be famous; I wouldn't be if it wasn't for my genetic code. But that wasn't going to change, was it?_

_My eyes felt like they were glowing in a timid rage. The humans kept moving around the mall, from shop to shop, from person to person. And they would sometimes notice the boy._

_Until she arrived, and changed everything._

_Her face appeared out of the crowd. It was one of those faces that made you immediately smile on sight. A group of gossiping teenagers who were spying on me a distance away commented on my sudden change of behaviour. Someone was always watching me out here._

_She flashed a smile back when she noticed me. And she crossed the river of humans, she wasn't famous as me, she didn't get noticed. Not as famous though._

_The face of the beautiful girl struck an image in my mind; it dominated any other emotions and would wake me up from any dream. It was enough encouragement for anything._

Even getting yourself killed. I leapt over a twisted line of barbed wire, dead dog caught in the middle and punctured with several bullets. A rumble behind me could be heard and I glanced to notice our envoy tank appearing from behind the ruins. It fired away at the extensive trees. Was it authorized to be here?

We don't need tank support to take out some rebels, I don't need support. I don't need any help!

I ignited, and jumped into the fresh rainforest. Firewood for the inflammable. I was covered in a layer of magical fire, and my organic substance spread across the area of bodies and vegetation.

Flames erupted around me, sending men with guns fleeing and terror inflicted in their eyes. The tank guns smashed down the trees ahead of me, and the rebels blew apart lifeless, weapons nearly melted and flesh deformed.

I lashed out with my burning hands at any rebels that dared show their presence. Until they had all burned to death. And when all sound was silent again except for the swaying trees and flickering fire.

I relaxed my rage, and flames died down until I was a normal looking human teenage boy again. No normal human teenager boy was on a war front fighting for the freedom of his nation.

I was the only male mage of my age, what else did I expect?

I walked back slowly to the town, soldiers hastily searched around the corners of the town and the tank stood still as the watcher in the centre. Reinforcements sent from another truck had formed a perimeter around the settlement and kept a lookout for any more insurgents appearing.

Samantha was still where she was before. Except that the dead child wasn't there anymore. It had been blown apart by a stray mortar. And bits of an eviscerated body hung over on the crippled blood stained grass.

I sat down next to the girl, and put my arms over her shoulder. Her clothing was stained from charred gunpowder flying in the wind and from her excessive tears. It was all just one big shock to her.

She was just a kid, as was I. We had been forced to go to war, because we were the ones needed. Not because we were the best, not because we were the bravest or were heroes. Only because the world needed us now at the thread of our destruction.

She squashed her face into my chest, and we sat together against a gunned down house with soldiers of war scurrying around us. We didn't look at the reality of our environment, but chose in that moment to imagine we were somewhere else.

Somewhere else, where we didn't exist. And the world would be none the wiser.

Epsilon approached us and informed us we needed to head out, all rebel activity in the region had been eradicated.

I picked up Samantha and practically carried her back to our truck. She sat nearly sobbing from the fright of the skirmish, and was forced to cuddle into me again. I looked out at the end of the vehicle, our company in less numbers now. Watching the demolished town disappear behind us, and the burnt trees vanish in the distance along our muddy road.

We would reach the real battle further on, at New Delhi. Where the real battle front was occurring and our objective of this mission and minor war.

The Indian countryside looked no better than the dead fields of the town. Pastures of water were spoiled; crops had been burned down or shelled. And we saw nothing else alive on the rest of our travels to New Delhi.

Not until we reached the place where everyone was hiding.

_I stood tall at the top of the skyscraper. Ninety nine floors high, the wind threatened to carry me all the way back to floor one. Chicago lay ahead of me, one the few times I had visited the USA. The icy sea behind me, with the snow fluttering in the wind. Snow drifts blocked the parks below and cars covered in frost drove in circles. _

_A shivering breeze passed through me. Only to be quelled by my inner fire trembling inside. More frost bitten skyscrapers around me, windows fogged up and heated mist evaporating from air vents. The sky was cloudy and snowing tiny amounts of snow._

_I shook my shoulders and the white powder fell to the concrete floor below me. Looking up again at the white freckled sky, a plane flew by in the distance. _

_Lights around the city began to turn on, parading the metropolis in lights and glowing decoration._

_It was my birthday, but no one cared, I didn't want them to care. There was nothing important about a social exile and a freak turning a new age. They would have been better off without me._

_I lifted my hand and caught some flakes of snow. They melted as they touched the temperature of my skin. And water dripped down again, drops of snow fell between the crevasses in my finger._

_And they froze before they hit the ground. Cooling off again and free from my heated reach._

_My anger and rage, boiled up inside and released as furious temperatures. I literally burned down any that opposed me, maybe that was symbolic of something?_

_Freezing temperatures, warmed by my presence. The snow continued to build up as the minutes passed by and I stared at the frozen urban view before me._

_The Frozen Angel would like this view. She always had a habit of pursuing the coldest reaches of her world. Especially the most serene and spectacular._

_We were opposites in nature and in reality. But that's why got along so well, because we filled the other person's empty voids. _

_Of course, there were still other people._

_I had aged on this night, and no one cares for the lonely silent boy that stands on the tallest building in the city. No light shines on the boy shrouded in darkness, nothing special occurs for the blazing kid._

_Because I didn't want anything to happen._

The truck bounced as it hit a small ditch in the road. I woke up and looked around me; Samantha was still surprisingly asleep on my shoulder. The soldiers were looking depressed and morbid like usual. Even more as we reached the stretches of the war torn capital.

The outer regions could now be seen, small houses and the slums of a nation stricken with poverty and denial. Some of the buildings had been bombed or gunned; a few corpses were laid abandoned on the side of the street. And the people looked with fear at the armed soldiers that drove by; they didn't know who to trust in this screwed up world.

Could you really trust anyone?

Some people scattered at the sight of the tank rolling behind us. They knew what one of those could do, some possibly scarred from the devastating effects of that weapon.

We were nearing our stop. The sounds of continuous explosions and stray gunfire could now be heard. An hour later our truck stopped and I let Samantha sleep, while I carried her in both my arms. We exited the vehicle and followed Epsilon and the other soldiers. Towards the frontline we walked, through the buildings and worn down shelters. I could see a large trench between the gaps in the central building district, the main division between us and the enemy.

The enemy didn't know that we were here yet.

And we wouldn't show them until tomorrow. I was directed to some basement accommodation separated from everyone else like how government had requested. And a single small bed like Samantha had requested.

We were underground in case of heavy bombing. There was little light except for a few candles and they tended to shake at nearly every detonation in the distance. A random bookshelf was also left in the basement, obviously this place once used to belong to someone. I laid Samantha down on the bed and proceeded to explore the small room.

The books were written in a different language, except for the bible. And I had no intention of reading that.

There was no God in a world like this.

Samantha stirred behind me, and she gripped the soft pillow closer. Her eyes still closed and semi conscious. I found a chair toppled over nearby and tilted it back up.

Taking one last long look at my room for the next few days, I sat down on the chair and watched the angel sleeping in the bed.

Every few moments something would blow up in the distances, every hour you could hear the shouting of "MEDIC!" and every second you could hear the ticking timer of a bullet destined for your heart.

_Her mother lay dying in the hospital bed. Her family was slowing dying around her, some found it unbearable to live in this world; others couldn't control the world of bacterial infections. And others had been blown to bits on the other side of the world._

_I held the girl's hand in comfort, there was nothing much I could do in this situation. Her mother lay unconscious and still, every moment was a moment lost. Her heart beat bleeped every second, the line waving up and down on the computer screen._

_She was dying of cancer, originally sourced from exposure to too much radiation. The world had begun the race of chemical warfare, and an accidental spill of radioactive toxic waste in England had killed nearly thousands of people._

_The woman dying in front of me happened to be visiting that place at the wrong time. The doctors and nurses stood nearby, watching the lady pass her last few seconds._

_And her heart stopped forever._

_She buried her face in her hands to stop her bawling. I tried to comfort her, but deep down I knew I would never truly understand. I never had a family._

_But was that worse? To never have a family or have one and watch them die before you?_

"What are you doing?"

I glanced back at Samantha; she had sat up from the bed and was staring at me, "I'm sitting on this chair…"

"Fine….let me rephrase that. Why are you over there?"

"Because the bed is too small for both of us and you need more sleep than me."

She looked around her and whined, "It's not small…"

"Yes it is."

A frown and then an annoyed look. A bomb exploded nearby, you could the rain of debris fall on the ground a few seconds afterwards.

"Have you taken a look up there?" she asked, her eyes watching the shaking ceiling.

"Nope…"

"Are you going to?"

"Not until I have to…I'd rather watch you than a bunch of mutilated corpses…"

"Uh huh…subtle…"

"It certainly is…"

"So…you coming to bed now or what?"

"I thought we ended this conversation…"

"We have a lot of time, a lot of time to discuss many things…"

"Like?"

"You have to lie here with me first."

"Fine…" I stood up and paced over to her. I lay down next to her and watched her find a comfortable position on top of me.

She watched my eyes move, until we were locked in a frozen moment of time. Until a shell blasted a structure nearby, and ended our tranquil romantic moment.

She dug her face into my chest. And we were silent listening to the bombs blasting outside, a couple lying in a war zone. Lying around as people above ground were blown to bits and families back home cried for their men.

What could we do?

We could do what we were sent to do. Samantha and I talked about many things that night, and they eventually resulted in an awkward moment. We confessed our feelings for each other, and gained insight into the other person's mind. We talked about times back home, back in Australia and how our lives were so different compared to an average teenager's life.

Until the fatigue took over, and we both fell asleep holding each other.

"_You don't have to go to war…" she looked at me desperately, her eyes pleading for some alternative._

"_Yes I do…you know I have to…"_

"_But…I don't want you to."_

"_But I still have to…"_

"_There has to be something else! We…we could run away together…or just refuse to go to war…please…"_

"_I can't run away…I'm needed in the world. Could you run away from the world when it needs you the most?"_

_She nearly collapsed from defeat, her heart shattered and her hands gripping my shirt. She felt weakened, the shock from what she was hearing. That I would be leaving Australia, and heading to war. A war where no one comes back. Especially not Mages._

"_I'm sorry…" I said to her. She looked up at my face; a tear dropped from her eye and fell onto the carpet. She looked down to hide the tears, and then back up with a new face._

"_I'm not letting you go…" she stated defiantly._

"_What?"_

"_I'm not going to let you go to war…"_

"_I promise I'll come back…"_

"_You don't need to…you're not going in the first place," she sounded delusional. Like she was finally losing her sanity. She had lost all of her family, her brother committed suicide, her mother part of a freak accident, father sent to war and blown to bits, and now me. Her boyfriend was going to war, her special boyfriend. The one that wasn't completely human, the one that was a national hero._

_The Flame of the South, they called me. And I was to go to war and serve the Australian forces._

_We were silent, and I waited for her to finally accept the reality of the situation. That it was all beyond her control, and that I was going to head to war and would most likely die there. This was the last night she would see me. This might be her only chance, and she was spending it in tears._

"_You promise you'll come back?"_

"_I promise…"_

"_What will happen if you don't?"_

"_I don't know, because it won't happen…"_

"_I'll be so lonely here…I won't have anyone left…" I brushed away the hair covering her eyes as she talked._

"_You still have friends…"_

"_They don't count…"_

"_Will you be that unhappy without me around?"_

"_Yes…"_

"_I'm sorry…"_

"_If you do come back though, when the war is over….I'll be happy again…"_

_We were silent again, and she tugged more on my shirt. She arms snaked themselves around me, and we spent the night alone._

_Nightfall meets the glowing sun._

My fingers trailed flames, my eyes glowed with fury and my muscles tensed together. The onslaught had begun; we were in the middle of the battle. Light flashing all over the place, scattering bullets riveting past us and bomb shells booming around me.

I hurdled a barbed wire strand and fired more fire balls in the direction of the enemy.

Blood pounding, heart racing and lungs puffing. Adrenaline hit my mind, and I was lost in the craze of bloodlust and murder.

Samantha stepped beside me, wearing blue battle armour like me and a dark hood covering her face. Bullets flew past us, we crouched behind a concrete slab and tried to rest as the exhausting battle waged around us.

Lost in the main building district, we could see buildings torn apart and militia on both sides holed in random locations. Missile launchers and grenades flying all over, shattering concrete and exploding soldiers. I could feel the heat all over, the sudden intense concentration of detonating explosives and the satisfying taste of immolating enemies.

Fire erupted beside me, and I absorbed it with my bare hands. Samantha stayed close and called on her cryogenic abilities to form frozen walls that stopped enemy fire from hitting us. We were alone against the enemy, our soldiers held far back and kept away from us.

Fire and Ice, holding out against steel and bullets. We were lost then, fighting for our lives as our frenzy wore on, lost in the instincts to survive and lost in the moral sense that we were killing without mercy. Our powers had turned into weapons of war.

I was a fire mage, I could control fire and use it to my own command, constructing fire balls and igniting objects on fire. Samantha was an ice mage; she had the same ability except for water and ice. There were three types of mages, fire, ice and arcane. Arcane was lost somewhere in the middle between the two which was a neutral type of ability.

But we were still lost. _We are lost in the transgression of Hate. _I stopped moving around from cover to cover, and looked up at the blood red sky.

Clouds covered the crimson sky, and the buildings were crumbling around me. Samantha swung herself against a brick wall, her hair loose and sweaty. She began breathing heavily and watching me standing still, wondering why I wasn't tired from all the mental and physical bloodshed.

And it felt like time slowed down. I picked myself up, conjured a new batch of raging fire and stepped onto the open street. Bullets fired at me, bullets missing and puncturing the asphalt road. I glanced back and saw the girl follow me.

We locked eyes; her pretty blue eyes were printed inside my head.

And the sounds of war came drumming back; a rocket launcher was fired desperately at the two advancing mages. She was distracted; she was lost in her mental and emotional distress. She couldn't see or notice it heading for me. Bullets fired again at us.

The world went fuzzy, I fell to the dirt dazed and wounded. I was blind to everything in that short moment, everything faded out for that moment. I could hear the deafened screams of soldiers on both sides. And the taste of blood in my mouth, a trickle of liquid on the side of my face.

My vision blurred back, until I was staring at the face of a girl. She lay against a pile of rocks, bullet holes covered her skin, and blood was pouring out from her body. And I slowly came to my realization of who that was. I forced myself up despite the wounds; I was still in one piece unlike her. I tried to get closer. She vomited blood from her mouth.

"Samantha!!"

She looked at me with her scarred and torn face. I tripped over as a bullet hit my ankle and I crashed back down to the dust. The face of an angel, dying before me.

Her eyes went still, her heart stopped and I was looking at the memory of a person. I couldn't move, just couldn't move. There was no hope left, she was gone. I couldn't keep my eyes off the dead body of Samantha, the teenage girl.

She was so young, and yet she died like this. We were machines of war, that was our duty. Screw that duty!

I was wounded heavily; I would die soon as well. But it didn't matter, none of it did anymore. I lost my mind.

I went insane, anger and hatred dominated my brain and I was thrown into an abyss of revolting emotions and thoughts. Anger and rage was all I could see, in the colour of blood and on the face of the girl. I was transforming into something that was a monster of resent. Eyes were blinded from light, my feet left the ground.

I was locked in the fury for a few seconds. And when I could see again, I couldn't control myself. I saw the faces of the terrified soldiers; the Taliban soldiers saw their death in my eyes. I watched the expressions of my soldiers, as they saw a monster charge into their enemies full of flaming wrath.

I was bigger, made of fire and I was uncontrollable. There was no human flesh left on this body, it was just pure fire with melted volcanic rocks supporting my frame of the body.

I thrashed into the soldiers and tore them apart. My fists landed on their guns and melted them to pieces; their flesh was burnt to extreme temperatures. I smashed the buildings around me, crushed any that dared to oppose me. Me, Matthias the terrible monster.

I rampaged around the city area, as something new to humankind. The creation of a mythical creature on the fields of war. A helicopter tried to escape, and I leapt from a building, sending the chopper back down to the ground and tearing it apart. I picked up boulders of over turned road and threw them around me. A colossus set on fire I ripped apart enemy forces, pounded their soldiers and pulled apart their bodies. A titan of flames I charged into their tanks and exploded them with my igniting touch.

I was a walking inferno.

Fire and rage consumed all I saw. Until even the reason why I was this was forgotten, and when I could see nothing left but the anger to unleash on these pitiful humans. More chaos rained down on these fleshlings, I scalded them apart and melted their bones.

When I finally saw the limits of my destruction, I stood still and saw the demolished city around me and the bodies of Taliban forces surrounding me. Allied forced cautiously approached behind me.

I was a human again, and I was on my knees crying out all the sorrow and destruction I was. The loss was the most devastating. I wasn't going to die; I would be alone here on the burnt battlefield. I turned around and saw the soldiers running around checking the bodies; they all hesitated on approaching me. The front line had been secured and the enemy was sent fleeing.

But no one would ever see me the same again. I wasn't the innocent boy that travelled with them to war. Deep down I was a monster, and that monster was unleashed today. I had lost control, due to the loss of Samantha. Was I as susceptible to rage like that?

I picked up a pile of ash and dirt, held it in the palm of my human hand. And slowly let it seethe from my hand, as it flowed between my finger tips back down to the scarred land.

_I walked out into the open blazing light. Cameras and filmers focused on me_. _I passed through the crowds of people, some cheering and some watching. I was their war hero, even before I had been to war._

_I was the chosen one to leap this nation to salvation._

_And I looked back through the crowds to see the face of a girl. She sadly smiled at me and her auburn hair bristled in the breeze; I tried to reassure her by smiling back._

_Kaylee never saw me again from that day. Her whereabouts unknown and lost, as the years passed and we finally saw the myths of Hell become reality on our precious planet._

_She was left alone to fend for herself._

_And so was I._

Orange dawn on the horizon, settling moisture gasping through the air. I stood on the mound of a hill; green grass flowed along the hill. Along the view stood packs of thick forests and the far away mountains. The leaves swayed gently in the wind, and clouds were just simple white puffs in the sky.

Behind me were the war machines, the tanks and the soldiers. The ruins of New Delhi crumbled behind me, as my cape flew against the resisting gusts. The dead soldiers lay rotting and the concrete lay crushing from explosives.

Was that how life was to be for me? It hadn't even started yet. I was walking into the beautiful future and leaving it in tatters behind me. Was that really who I was?

The Allied soldiers had organized a funeral for Samantha today, they carried her coffin up the hill towards me. She would prefer to be buried on this hill, a landmark in a war torn land.

The arms and weapons lay still respectfully, the men in uniforms stood watching the funeral of a goddess. I watched the wooden box being lowered down into the deep hole. Barb wire and marching marks on the ground at the foot of the hill.

The soldiers had already sent news and live footage of my transformation back home. The whole world knew the extent of my abnormal powers, and such power was even rare for Mage standards.

The Inferno they called me, and from that day the enemies of our nation were more cautious, they chose their tactics with more watchfulness. Yet they still didn't know it was only a teenage boy they faced.

I wasn't a tormentor, I wasn't a spawn of Hell or a destructive titan on a rampage. But that was how the world saw me. Did it really matter how much the world saw me? It was only a matter of honour, and all honour I had endured, was lost on that fateful day.

Who was I?

I don't know, and probably never will.

It's up to you in the end. And as you dwell further into my domain, be aware for the spikes of chaos, the waves of weakness and the adaptation to the new world.

We all are really unpredictable. If you think you know me, then you don't know me.


	3. Armageddon

**Chapter 3: Armageddon**

"_Life is a war zone, and truth is the first casualty."_

Night falls on a midsummer day. Foggy haze rises form the depths of the grates. Sewers are packed with mutated mice and rats scour the drain pipes. Gutters are filled with decomposing small bodies and toxic waste settled in the jammed pathways. Mini aqueducts filled with red liquid pour from a home. The clouds bloom more depressing sights and the nuclear filled wasteland survives another minute as creatures and species watch it rot away.

The playground in the local park had turned into a dumpster. Rubbish and scraps of metal lay dormant around the equipment. The poles had rusted down exposing the inner structure, like skeletal silver bones sticking out from the plastic. The slide had worn away, the colour faded by the acid rain and turned bumpy by excessive temperatures. The grass near the playground had died away, leaving barren earth and small crevasses in the ground. Dried clean of moisture and the stench of humanity in its wake.

The restaurant had broken windows, the tables are hacked in half and the chairs were dislocated in many places. Food has been scavenged by beasts a long time ago, their massive footsteps and claw marks still left on the walls and floor. The carpet is an infested breeding hive for radioactive termites and insects, the roof a brooding hole for ghouls. Paintings on the walls had been scraped by massive teeth in search of food, the toilets lay unclean and mould grew all over the bathroom. Fungus ruled in the kitchen, dominating almost every surface on the kitchen tables and ovens. Outside a light cardboard box, torn and bent in many places flew around the empty restaurant car park.

The hidden one approached the next street, walking silently with each footstep and watching the movement of all objects. The dark one carried two silver swords, one in each hand and ready to strike down any that dared show its grotesque face. He paced up and down the suburban street, passing the graffiti on the walls and the broken picket fences of small cottages. His eyes were not visible, only an empty black abyss opened up where his face should be, his hood covering away all existence of identity.

The clothes line had been torn down, the garden was ravaged by radioactive waste and death spat on the barren ground. Trees were bent grey and looking solemn down into their trunks. Electrical lines hung with draping moss from their telegraph poles, others had been pulled down by the weight of explosions and bombs. Gun bullets had punctured an electrical box, which then showed obvious signs of tampering. A ute sat motionless with its door open and a fresh skeleton lingering on the front seat.

He stopped walking, and stood still in front of the building. The place once used to be a school, and this once used to be the main hall for that school. He stood now on the oval, a dry and sandy pasture of land. To his right were demolished buildings, once a library and classrooms now ravaged rooms to his left. The school had once been a refuge hold for survivors, now it was a desolate and empty environment, like the rest of the world now. He was almost frozen, looking through his blinding darkness at the images ahead.

_1994, I was born._

He could detect movement in the hall, although it was pitch black inside there. Any monstrous creature would claim the darkness as its home. This hall was luxury for the mutated abominations. He walked in, swords still blazing in the coughing sunlight.

He could still see perfectly well, disillusioned by his thoughts and exile. Solitary life exposed to nothing but injustice and horror. His mind had twisted to see things most others couldn't, and that was his curse.

_1996, I can see the crystal like surface of the water above me. As I lay floating in the white pool underwater, and felt the last few strains of oxygen leave me. I was drowning, and no one would save me._

The growl of a disturbed creature, a giant lizard with bloodshot eyes and slashing teeth hung on the far wall. It could sense an intruder, but its sense felt undermined and compromised. This was not a normal opponent.

The dark one moved forward, slowly and seemingly hovering with his black cape swirling in the black mist. The basilisk clambered down from its wall and proceeded with caution towards the depths of the darkness. Another lizard appeared from behind a stage, signifying that a family was roosting in this school hall.

He got close by the first creature, circled around with his prey still blind. And backstabbed the monster ferociously until it screamed in agony at the shot of pain and green murky blood spilling from its back. The other lizards growled in retaliation, the family of five more appeared on the ceiling and the wall, searching for something they could not see.

They were bigger than a normal human, almost four metres in length and two metres high. Their tails wagged side to side swishing the air around. Their red eyes watched the floor below, constantly surveying their hidden predator and oppressor. They could not exactly find him, they searched but all they heard was the screech of another family member.

In the end they fled, ran to find another safe haven for their kind. The dark one was left alone in the shadows with the deceased basilisks. He was frozen again, in the shade of a high school and watching the buildings that once roamed with life and education. He might remember this location; he had been to a lot in his life.

Before and after he felt he died.

_2000, I live on to witness a joyous New Year celebration at my orphanage. Only to be ruined by the tragic news of the Battle of the Rising Sun in Saigon. I remember seeing in the corner two children fighting each other over a toy, and in another corner two teenagers were fornicating._

The prison on the hillside was empty and clean of bodies. All cells were empty of life; most had been opened while others had carnivorous creatures enter them. A few scattered weapons lie across the hallways, and the mud prints of reptilian monsters decorate the cold concrete floor. In the furthest corner, in the darkest room of the complex a hideous monster lurks waiting for adventurers and wanderers to stumble upon its lair. Once a humanoid and turned into a malicious creature of darkness it hides patiently for the appearance of food. But it still bears the memories of a past human life, with only its hunger driving its wild mind, like an addictive drug nestled deep in its brain.

The hospital is stripped clean of medicines and useful commodities. Refugees and survivors of the scourge and waste had been here before, long ago to take what they needed to survive. And they left out into the dark underworld seeking a place to rebuild their lost race once again. An old woman was left to die in her bed, her skeleton and rotting flesh still visible beneath her clothes. A flower placed in the bedside table has decomposed to dust and the rest of the room was shrouded in moss and dirt.

_2005, I walk into high school for the first time, watching cautiously as the days passed by. The sun almost foreshadowed the coming of a war, in the future distance the howling of pain and suffering could be heard. Many people at my school committed suicide in belief that there was no point living, not in a world that would die anyway. _

He looked down from the tallest building in the city; the sunset behind him broadcasted his shadow across the whole city. And the creatures ran in fear, they knew he was still there.

And he was still on the hunt.

He jumped from the tall perch landed on the next building, sprinting across rooftops and parachuting from the air with his cape. He landed on a warehouse and froze, watching the essence of sunlight through the thick clouds disappear. Nightfall settled down. He moved forward into the new darkness.

A farm was a smashed apart building. All animals had either mutated or died from radiation. The rest had been consumed, just like the owners had. Rotting orchards and venomous fruit grew from the trees. Hay stacks burnt to crisps and stables crushed by detonations. The fields extended over the dead hills.

The dark one passed the hills and crouched down near a withered tree. He looked carefully in the distance, and saw lights flickering like candles. Artificial lights, either humans had constructed a temporary settlement dangerously close to the city or a species had suddenly become intelligent.

The humans knew him as 'Nightfall', because of his nocturnal habits and activity. His face was also a chaotic void into nothing, like sheer darkness would stare back at you. They were terrified of him, because they couldn't understand him or control him. And Nightfall wanted nothing much to do with the humans; they were safer being away from the city boundaries.

Perhaps this group of exhausted beings had travelled a long way?

Nightfall moved closer to the human settlement, the light glowed brighter and the large exposure to light burned his eyes. He remained cautious, making sure not to stare too long with his night proficient eyes. Humans rarely built a settlement this large.

He jumped and landed on a large dead tree. From his view he saw the expanse of a small town. Buildings erected from metallic parts and lights connected to a battery conductor. There were about two hundred people here. And they were all human, pure human. Nightfall was surprised; he had never seen so many people in such a short time. Only stranglers or strangers that eventually were consumed by the ghouls or other creatures.

They couldn't see him, they might not even know of him. They wouldn't know much about the city if they settled here. This was his city, and none entered or left without his knowledge.

Nightfall relaxed on his branch and observed the humans continue with their busy routines. They had settled here yesterday, and managed to hastily construct a large town. It was complete with dumpster houses, a medical ward in the far corner and a town centre for people to socialize and plan their work. Teenagers helped with the duties, while little kids ran around playfully with cautious protectors watching every step. A mother carrying a new born child walked out from a house and talked to a man hammering a piece of metal. All their faces were covered in dirt; they didn't have any hygienic services here or a decent shower. Their aim was to survive, simply survive and take care of what needed the most attention.

Right now, their defence was their main concern. There was a small militia group patrolling the vicinity of the town, they passed Nightfall's tree without noticing him. But he noticed they had pre- war weapons and old fashioned clothing. Salvaged items improvised for combat, such as a baseball bat and a hockey mask. One man wore a gas mask and had a long sniper rifle on his shoulder.

These humans were serious about settling permanently. Nightfall wondered about what to do, he might protect them, but at the same time he could lead them all to their doom. The ghouls of his city were hungry, at least the ones that survived his wrath. A scent of human flesh could send the whole metropolis into a frenzy to feed on the human population.

A teenage girl carrying a bucket of dirty water walked up to his tree. She didn't notice the wraith sitting on the branches above, and just poured the waste out onto the tree roots. She paused and looked around cautiously; she could sense that she wasn't alone. But at the same time she couldn't pinpoint the presence of another being. Her precognition was confused, and it worried her. That horrible nagging feeling of paranoia eating away the sanity of your mind. She could feel it now, and she hated it. She quickly stumbled back to her town, keeping an eye on anything behind her. Not looking directly into the tree and the dark ghost watching her back with black eyes and a face of the vortex.

Nightfall remained with the human settlement for another five hours, his duty of murdering mutations could wait for now. The smell of aroma and perfume could be smelled even this far away. Typical humans, typical stubborn humans continually trying to survive even on the edge of extinction.

A man and a woman were kissing each other behind a building, while on the other side a guard watched the far side of the town, a rifle in hand and a bandana tying back his hair. Children eventually fell to sleep and were given plush toys to sleep with. The same girl from before walked outside to stare at the moon shaded in the clouds, when she turned to stare at the lonely tree on the horizon. She swore she saw some twilight eyes staring back, but when she blinked the image vanished and it was only the night she saw.

Nightfall remained camouflaged in the night, and remained silent and motionless as he watched the wretches of humanity struggle to rebuild. They could use his help, everyone still alive on this pitiful wasteland could. With him on their side, anyone could survive to rebuild whatever monument or settlement they wished.

A blue flag with a red star and white smaller stars was stuck in the centre of town, the flag pole swayed as the wind flowed by. Rusted metal chipped off like bark falling off trees. And he felt that he once knew a time when that flag would have meant something.

Back then before when the war began.

_2008, the war begins. I watch the tears of a girl on the park bench, her father and brother sent to war. Protest movements arrive and riot in the streets, their struggles and efforts led to nothing. And I stand watching as time passes by, in my melancholy state and isolated mind._

_I can feel nothing, not even the grudges of regret or the hints of remorse. As I stand silently leaning against the brick wall, I can feel the burden of a thousand nations fall upon me. Why me?_

The local river had dried up in many locations. The rest of the disgusting liquid left behind had swollen black objects and was contaminated by blood, mutated creatures, flesh and organic materials, radiation and toxic waste. Who could stand to even smell the horrible scent of that river?

The line of dead forests in the distance was still visible. A far mountain in the distance, its tip looked like it had been chopped off. Woodland critters cowered in the fear and presence of darkness, reconstructed monsters prowled the nightscape in search of food. In a small glade, a lost human boy sleeps unsteadily in the branches of a tall tree. His arms covering his ears from the terrifying noises and his eyes blinded shut from the beings that would stare up at him, with their saliva dripping from their hungry teeth and their eyes berserk at the fresh food.

Nightfall appeared back from the human settlement, enough information was gathered. Now was left the decision, to let them live or let them die? Either way, he would watch their fate. He was the dark crusader, with a futile mission and no sense of emotions.

These humans had not lost their hope, despite the many losses and all the chaotic destruction. Despite all that had been laid waste to, they were determined to stay alive. They wanted to see the world they once aspired to perfect.

_Our darkest hour is our beacon of hope._

A ghoul stands alone in the middle of an unfamiliar street. It perks its head sideways, and sniffs for something familiar to lead the way. It has melted leather clothes and a few strands of grey hair left behind from the mutation. Nightfall skipped behind the large overflowing garbage bins and sent daggers flying into the zombie. It smashed backwards with metallic weapons piercing its face and a broken skull on the concrete road.

He opened the door to a tall metropolis, and entered invisible in the eyes of all creatures. The sun was about to rise, and there much to do the next night. The humans weren't nocturnal; they could get themselves killed during the daylight if they weren't careful.

Nightfall vanished into the night.

Acid rain was spitting down on the city. Dead plants disintegrated into the corrosive water. Discarded umbrellas dissolved into a skeletal metallic frame. The green water rushed down the sides of a glass window. A puddle began to fill in a ditch along the road. A ceramic pot with filled full with the acid water, and began overflowing onto the marble floors of the house. Overhead the open crater of a damaged roof displayed the cheerless sky.

Ghouls hid in the buildings, their devilish eyes watching the falling water outside. They were learning slowly, like humanity had devolved and began the cycle of renaissance again. They knew now that the falling water was dangerous, one of their kind had turned too adventurous and gotten himself hollowed by the acid. The large family of once humans lingered in the remnants of an office building. They could not talk, they only could grunt and sense, smell the scent of food, see the threat of danger and explore with their sense of hearing. Grunting was the expression used to identify danger or to gain the attention of something. Their lungs were deformed, and they often suffered from breathing problems, their wheezing could be heard from a long distance away.

Across the street, a band of gigantic monsters covered in rubbish hid in the piles of deconstruction as the rain wore on. Their green bulging eyes watched the movement of the weather and their tough skin withstood the barrage of the rain. The patters of rain pouring continued.

The toxic liquid flooded out the waste left on the streets. War protesting signs were washed down to the sewers. Pamphlets and pictures of missing humans began to fly in the wind and the storm brewed on.

The humans settling on the edge of the brooding point for monsters, struggled to live on. They continued to fight the stubborn land, trying desperately to reproduce some new life in the soil. Yet to no avail as the days wore on with the barren texture of the world.

A girl would stand near the lonely tree each day, watching the murky clouds pass by. Her hair would flow in the wind and she would watch and remember as her life was broken around her. The desolate scene of the main city loomed in front of her. And she would sigh in depression as she saw again an urban city full of lights sprinkle towards her in the form of dreams.

Isolated in his own special room, a scientist worked furiously by himself to search through records and information for something to reverse the destruction of radiation. He was alone, and barely slept at all while the hours would pass each day and we would sift through his papers. Only the arrival of food and visitors would disturb his work. A window was placed behind him, which shone the sky and the tall buildings in the distance. One look at the melancholy sight would stir him to try harder, and someday return the world that once had been taken from him.

Midday and the minutes passed in silence. A breeze fluttered through a street, swishing the tree branches and lifting a sign to squeak as it swung around. Along another street, daylight terrors and apparitions haunted through, wandering aimlessly for something to feed upon.

And in the darkness of humanity, the nation turns its lonely eyes to the forbidden one. The exile that would stalk along the tips of night. He would hide away and only strike when necessary, an assassin with no loyalty to any faction. Nightfall was a vigilante in the middle of a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.

A man picked up a hammer, and kept banging down on the twisted metal materials. He looked around his new newly formed town, remnants of a race's extinction. They were all supposed to be dead, but yet they moved on and faced the horrors of death everyday. Everyday and every moment was a struggle for life.

Fallout dripped off the gutters on houses, rooftops spilled with the drops of toxic rain. The rain was over, and only the wet remains of the hazardous weather were visible. More creatures emerged from the end of a deadly event.

Deep down underground, past the cracked pipelines and beyond the catacombs of sewers. Embedded between two unweathered rocks and stranded by the sheer of weight of dirt and mass. Where the ground had turned moist and the layer of Earth had gone too far for the human world to interact with it.

A root spouted.


	4. The Call of the Desert

**Chapter 4: The Call of the Desert**

"_Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you."_

_We are stranded in the phase of their Imagination_

We lie struggling at the feet of our oppressors; we ride as cavalry in arms and siblings in nature. We stride proudly into the depths of our ancient future, and touch wildly at the ends of possibility.

Yet we fall for the anger of war. We collapse at the power of might. And we still trudge on, into the blinding light and where ever it should lead us.

Time has passed, and I arrive again at the shores of conflict. The sandy paradise of a corrupted world stretches beyond my eyes. We retaliate for what is left of this broken earth, and what will never be of this cruel world.

The savannahs of Africa toil beneath my feet, and I remember the hazards of the life before at war. Only a few years later, and I am sent to intervene again within the battles of another nation's bitter struggle.

Our enemy this time was a unified faction calling itself the Walton Union. In the haste of war it had brought together the leaders of the countries of Africa, and under the lead of a famous and powerful arms dealer they formed the union. The Walton Union had under its command three mages that swore ultimate loyalty to their faction.

The forces of the Walton Union have begun conquering the continent of Africa; from there it had already begun waging war on any strong factions it encountered including the USSR and the resistant South Africa.

And that's where we fit in; we are the support being sent to South Africa as the Allied forces rejoin the ones on dire need of aid. This time the USA didn't participate though, they were too bust managing three fronts back on their mainland against the Mexican Uprising, the USSR and forces along the Atlantic Ocean. It was just Australian and Canadian forces here, and already our fate looked grim.

I was meant to alter the statistics of survival in some way. My past eventful days as the Inferno, and the moment they saw on TV as I transformed into a titanic walking ball of fire. They knew the far extent of my power; they feared it and they welcome it. Only if I unleashed it on the enemy though.

I suppose if I was determined to enough, I could destroy Australia myself.

We are walking through the sandy grasses of the savannah. We had spent last night at the Allied fort located in Johannesburg, and now we were heading to the border front. We marched on foot, while a few tank and vehicles accompanied us. There were not enough transport vehicles for everyone to ride on. The baobab trees passed along our route, African animals grazed along the pastures.

The sun was bright in the sky and we marched on.

_A panther sits patiently in the night sky. It watches the stars twinkling above it, with awe for the expanse of the universe. This is was no ordinary panther, this panther could think like a human, this panther could comprehend, it could read and it understood words._

_This panther was supernatural._

_It was massive for its size, giant black with razor fangs. Massive claws ripped off the bark of a tree nearby. It saw the world in black and white._

_And this panther prowled around its small glade, located far back in the backyard of a resident. It observed the waving trees and the falling leaves. _

_And when it was done procrastinating, it transformed back into its human form and walked home._

We had stopped beside a small oasis. I stepped close towards the water and looked at the reflection of the teenage boy looking back. I had suffered too many scars of war; most were visible along my face. The most noticeable being the scar that went across my left eye, from the top of the forehead across down and ending at the cheek.

Black unkempt hair swished around as I poured the fresh water on my sweating face. The coldness felt alien and strange to me, but it was bearable. I was only truly comfortable in the presence of heat.

The soldiers kept their distance from me. Another mage accompanying us, an arcane mage also kept himself isolated most of the time. Tane was his name, and he was a restoration arcane mage, particularly skilled at emergency wounds and healing the soldiers of his force. He had saved countless lives before, but like all mages he still felt different from the world. No matter how many he mended or brought to salvation, he would never belong amongst them.

I felt the texture of a nearby palm tree, in the distance a herd of gazelle could be seen. The sun still shone brightly, one of those days where you tend to notice the brightness of the hour.

We marched on through the desert of Africa.

_The dark boy, covered in black commando clothing walked out from behind the alleyway. He carried two samurai swords and a set of throwing knives. The teenage vigilante walked across the street, through the dark night and with the guilt of murder written across his heart. _

_He jumped on his stolen motorbike, and in the name of blind justice he drove away from the scene. The police and super nation forces tracked him; they gathered their weapons and began the hunt for the fallen knight. _

_He sped along the highway, black cape flowing back in the wind like a river and swerving between the cars and trucks. The helicopter swooped down and a machine gun fired on the black motorbike. He pulled out a handgun and shot back at the aerial pursuit behind him. The innocent car drivers watched in awe as the shadow of a human rode past them firing on his tormentor. _

_A jump over the side of the highway, and he landed on another highway heading in the opposite direction. The police cars sirened their way through the roads, the helicopter swerved around and raced to the escaping hero. _

_He entered the darker corners of the city and dismounted while the flashlights searched for him. Looking back at the moon in the sky, through the gap between the derelict houses, he realized he was still lost on the dark side of the moon._

We pulled over as ambush fire aimed at us. Soldiers in front of me fell dead and their blood spilled along the river. Our forces just happened to be crossing the river when the ambush began, I could see the Walton forces but I couldn't reach them yet.

The crocodiles down the river swam towards us.

A river of blood and a moment of confusion as they dived for the rocky shallow waters and returned fire. I stumbled across the river and fire ignited in my hands. Running through the maze of trees I slowly found each militia fighter, and burned his skin until it melted to a liquid.

Frightened animals fled in terror from the sight of me. I wiped away the blood of another scar; I wiped my nose bleed with my cape and waited for the dazed Allied forces to reach me. Sitting on an overgrown rock, listening to the birds chirp in stress and watching the burnt alive body of an African soldier.

Tane was the first to reach me, showing signs of worry since my departure from the main group. He barely said anything and relaxed at the sight of me watching the dead body of my recent victim. Tane was an adult, one of the few to still be alive in this world. There were once rumors of an assassination plot against him, obviously it failed.

Who really wants to kill a man that can supernaturally heal people?

I stood up when the bulk of our forces arrived, we had lost five men. It was our unawareness to be at blame for that. I followed the trudging soldiers heading to the far fields of the African Front. And we marched on.

_The young boy sat silently in the middle of his room. His eyes were closed and he sat with his legs crossed on the carpet floor. A window was open nearby, letting in the fresh wind and the assortment of scents from the outside environment._

_And the boy meditated silently, because he saw so much. He watched the world revolve around him; he realized the end of all things and the power of all things. He could see the blanket of the universe wrapped around him. There was the darkness and the light. And there was that moment of grayness in between. _

_He could see the finite depths of the atom; he could see the gigantic never ending expanse of the stars. He watches the world pass through the time; the four dimensions are melted down into one phase of life before him. _

_The beauty of life flows around him, and he feels the essence of it all. It terrifies him yet at the same time it inspires him. His eyes were tired from watching, yet he hadn't opened them at all. _

_And he could distinguish the unpredictable emotions, the line between the bad and the good. And he realized that the line did not exist, because the bad and the good are the exact same thing._

_It is the same with the dark and light._

The human soldiers set up their camp for the night, noon in the fields of Africa. Why was I here? I haven't even technically been home after the first war. I was transported back home from India to arrive in Perth and remain in a military training centre for the few years until taken back to war. Until I happened to be taken to this place.

I sifted my hand through the top of the tall grass. And I walked along the fields of flowers and tall vegetation. The hills in the distance blocked away the setting sun.

We were cast into the darkness, and I sat on the stranded tree, sitting on an elevated branch and observing the looming night. The stars in the sky and the fades of clouds that blocked out the twinkles.

I closed my eyes and listened to the crickets singing in the grass.

The soldiers began shouting wildly back at camp. I could now hear the flight of birds in the sky. Something exploded violently. The scent of nature embedded itself inside my nose. Light flashed and the reaction could be seen from my position.

I woke up, and walked over to the site where we were being attacked.

"Who dares disturb my peace?"

Stepped onto the ashes of the camp, and I exploded a soldier from the inside, convulsing his guts with fire and eventually compressing the air to a point where it just blew up. A soldier tried charging me with his knife, and I scorched his face with my flames. I looked around the camp and stood still like the unstoppable force had finally arrived in the fight.

Walking slowly through the burned tents, past the bodies of the soldiers and the assassins. We had been raided by a large force, and they had been successful.

Artillery on the hillside had rained hell on these soldiers; they then ran in and slaughtered everyone else alive. While the most deadly soldier had been sleeping one kilometre away from camp.

And now I was here, and I was pissed. The soldiers ran at me like lemmings that have prayed to die, and I burned them down. Anything that moved near me was fried until all was left was their deformed bones and their metal guns.

A pile of malformed body parts and soldier clothing lay in the centre of the camp, and I was in the middle with the massacre lying around me. My whole force had been destroyed that easily. Tane was missing, his body was not seen anywhere. Most likely had been abducted by the enemy. The tanks were on fire and the tents had been torn to pieces. An enemy mage might have been involved. I was still standing still in the centre with death and decay surrounding me, I covered my dark face with the hood and the flickers of fire lightened up my look.

I leaned down, picked up a rifle and a few bullets. And walked away from the destroyed camp towards where the artillery wheels had left off. As dawn rose, the tracks became clearer and I walked right into the desert.

_There was once a man, and he gave me two letters. He said to only open the first one if I ever found myself in a situation I couldn't get out of. And he said only open the second one if I couldn't get out of another situation._

_So it came that I found myself stuck in a situation that I couldn't get out of. So I opened the first letter and it said "Blame everything on me". And I did, and everything was better._

_But it came that I was in another stuck situation. So I opened the second letter, and it said: "Sit down, get a pen… and write two letters."_

Extreme heat in broad daylight. I could manage, I could endure. I didn't need water, water was for the weak. My feet sunk into the sand, the dunes swayed like they were alive as my mirages appeared and disappeared.

I had discarded my cloak back a few kilometres, and I struggled to walk across the desert. I wasn't fire itself, I couldn't endure everything. I was only a faithful follower of the fire; I was an admirer of the heat and the destruction. I couldn't be the exact essence of what I followed.

Sweat dripped down my arms, legs muscles burned. Me, feeling burning? Now that's a laugh. My eyelids were dropping; my hair was wet and dry at the same time. But I didn't care about my physical looks, I was a soldier. It didn't matter what I looked like, it mattered what I did and how I did it.

Right now I was pointlessly pursuing a group of Walton raiders that abducted the arcane mage and marauded my camp during the night.

Did I have any point in this?

Did I have anything better to do?

Guess not.

The illusions on the dunes kept trying to compromise my vigilance. I will not fall for those images. Those horrors of memories screaming and begging for me, none of it is real. I had to believe that in myself. The crying girl, the murdered woman lying dead on the patch of disturbed sand, they weren't real. The mutilated body of the child near my foot wasn't real.

I was just standing in an open desert, all alone and isolated. I was isolated on the island of the delusional; I will not fall for these antics and brain tricks. Her face showed up, her face being killed, her face changing into a horrible monster.

"No no no no!!" I yelled at the empty land, "Leave me alone!!" I screamed at the bright sun glimmering in the sky. The blighted sky looked with wonder back at me. The sands swirled together to form question marks on the dunes.

I slapped myself, and increased my heat resistance against the illusions I was suffering from. I don't need water, the sweat could leave but all I need is my fire to survive. It was all I depended on.

Me and my fire.

_He picked up his swords and slashed at the demons charging into him. The warrior dodged an incoming blow and stabbed back with a spin and a rapid strike. A jump and a blow on the guts of his opponent. The enemies fall one by one and they don't stop attacking. A thrust upwards and another enemy shed blood before hitting the ground again. The bodies pile and the honor strides on, the warriors will not all before their tormentors, they will not allow them to win or break through. Should weakness prevail they will command their muscles and fatigue limits to increase further._

_All in the name of war and gore. _

The ground is full of sand, white prickling heated sand. And it doesn't taste nice in my mouth. I can't move, my body won't let me. I argue with it, I command it, I shout at it in my mind yet it does not move.

I have no water left, I am dehydrated and I am living off the essence of fire. A fire always eventually goes out, that is the nature of things. I cannot see, for my mouth is stuck in the warm sand. I can hear the wind flowing the sand; I can smell the putrid stench of my body already rotting. Yet I cannot see, for then I am blind.

What do you do when all you feel is the hotness of the situation, and the echoes of the wind in your ears?

I am blind, dehydrated, seeing delusions and listening to the wind.

I am no longer human, because I am beyond what a human has seen. I never was a human, because a human does not feel what I feel. I am but a mere mutated creature compared to them, what do they care how different I am? I am only their salvation and belief for peace. If I am peace, then why do they let me rot in the middle of the desert?

Because there is no such thing as peace, the utopian idea of peace worldwide is impossible. Why? Because of human nature, those humans are the blame for their emotions of hatred, jealousy and angst.

Here I am laying face down in the desert, the sun is still alive and tanning me, my clothes feel like they are melting.

And no one cares.

_There was once a boy, he was kind, innocent, never retaliated when offended and always thought of making the world a better place even in the smallest deeds. He was kind, yet easily taken advantage of. He was quiet and shy, and he barely ever voiced his opinion. He was stuck in his own perfect world in his mind. _

_And then he was forced to see the dark side of life._

_And while sitting in a peach tree glade he realized the opening to another world, a world where life wasn't perfect where it wasn't good, where anything is possible. Anything is possible, even the worst and most sickest things you can think of. And he understood in that moment, that living a life of pure goodness was a lie, because that isn't life._

_Life is seeing the darkness and the light at the same time. And that's where he stood, as once a nice, kind and caring person he turned and fell to become the malicious, cruel and manipulative boy that wreaks havoc on the minds of others today._

_He was once a knight in shining armour; he once knew the meaning of the word 'honour'. Until he became a dark knight and a vigilante who serves no one, and nothing. Nothing forces this boy what to do, nothing controls him but the sheer complexion of hatred, revenge, curiosity and absolute chaos._

_That is where he stands, show him the world. And he will show you where he stands._

I woke up in a jail cell. Dripping polluted water formed an annoying rhythm in the corner. I opened my eyes wider and rubbed them clean of remaining sand, I was sitting on damp concrete.

Two looks and I realized I had been captured, some how a Walton group had probably found me and decided to take me into their jail. At least I was still alive. For now?

There was no escape route in sight, just me sitting in a concrete jail, with a concrete floor and a concrete ceiling, and concrete walls surrounding me. Just a little ventilation gap above me in the corner.

Light shimmered in from the ventilation hole and lit my little space up.

I was too weak to start blasting away at the walls of my prison, my captors had seemingly fed me and offered me water in my unconscious state but they probably poisoned me as well. Maybe Tane was here and I could break out with him?

I seriously think I am going insane. I am not taking this situation seriously enough.

The door opened, and the soldiers grabbed my arms. I realized at that moment my legs had been tranquilized, hopefully not forever. They dragged me away to the torture chambers.

_A blood red sky flourished above, cobblestones paved into the ground. A silk dress tattered across a spiked stone wall. Flames burning the houses. The street fumed heated air, and I walked through as the Prince of Darkness._

_I controlled the fire, and conjured beasts of the underworld. I am lord of all evil, my face glowed the heat of sin and corruption. Flaming soldiers walked past me obediently, elemental warriors forged from my hands._

_And they continued to burn away the waste of the world. While I watched and laughed._

_Because no one and nothing could oppose me._

They stabbed me, and threw my head into icy water. Hands bound together, weakened to prevent the use of my powers. Scars and rips along my skin. Bloody flesh covered my body and they showed no mercy. I could not see my torturers, except I once saw the face of another mage.

_Bombs flew over our heads._

"_Down, Down, Down!!"_

_We covered ourselves against the burning light and the detonating shells. Huddled against the sandstone we watched the end of our days come closer._

"Do you know why you are here young mage?"

I did not respond, I did not look.

"You are here because you are very special."

"Uh, boss I don't think he can hear you…"

"Oh he can hear me, very well. I can feel his rage burning inside…its like a catastrophe being shredded up, and it trembles every time I mutter a word…"

"Uh boss….what?"

"Never mind, go back to your duties. Now young mage, do you know why you are special?"

"You probably do…one of the billions to be turned into a living nightmare…and still stay alive. You defy all previous laws of physics and life itself, yet you lie with your heart pounding and your anger still strong…"

"You want to know why you aren't dead? Why we haven't killed you yet?"

"Because of that, because you are too special and crucial to be killed. You are the start of a new age, a new age of super humans. Where we shall rule the world! Not these pathetic humans, they are a dying breed… I will not murder you…you are to powerful and there are too few of us…think about it young one…"

_The waning wastelands stretch before me. Frost bitten trees and scarlet buildings. The darkness glares in my eyes, and I do not care._

_I watch the demons of horror approach me on this rocky landscape. My armour bears me down but I remain defiant. A shield with a phoenix and a razor sword are held in my hands. Bright white plate armour flashes in the eyes of my enemies. The helmet of a chevalier crusader is placed on my head, tiny holes indented for breathing and a Ned Kelly look for my face. A blood red cape billows in the wind._

_The rocks sunder in the air, above me there is no sky. There is no night, and no day. Only the expanse of flowing lights and chemical fireworks. An empty planet on the reaches of the universe, the ribbons of aurora australis, displayed in blue, red and green fly around in endless streams. _

_And I look down upon the creatures that oppose me; there are billions and billions of them. Standing and watching me with insults on their red tanned rock. _

_It was me against the world._

"How many people have you killed?"

"How many have you lost?"

"So many losses, but tell me, who has really won?"

The mage walked back and forth, in front of my tortured body. I could hear the footsteps, I could hear his breathing. I could hear his beating delicate heart. And I could feel myself one day squishing it with my bare hands.

I had been delirious all this time, weakened in the mind and physically. And now was the time to regain all I had lost in that time.

I was blinded by a piece of cloth. I could only hear. I was practically incapable and crippled. But I could still feel my abnormal sixth sense.

Most mages can only use their hands to produce their powers; they need the support of limbs to actually unleash the supernatural powers of their bodies.

My mind went black, and I focused closer on the living organism in front of me. I entered his chest with my mind, searched closer for the drum beats of the heart. I passed the precious lungs and reached his red ball pushing back in forth in his blood.

One touch with my mind, and another touch with fire.

His heart exploded.

And I was alive again.

Screams of the mage filled the room, seconds later he was lying in a pool of blood. I burnt apart my blind cloth and looked for the first time in days. I was too powerful to be held captive, none can destroy me!

I am your destruction!

I stepped forward, torture chamber filled with blood stained weapons and apparatus. Damp concrete on the floor, barely any natural light. Only gas lamps filled the thick environment.

I walked towards the closest corridor, stepping over the ruptured body. No mercy for the weak, my mind was entranced in the essence of my hostility.

Bodies and soldiers flew at me, they tried to slow me down, and they tried to kill me. I burned them all down; I burned anything else I saw. I left each room in a pile of flames, and they grew larger eating away at the survivors and the objects entangled in the mess.

The other prisoners were burnt alive as they screamed in their pitiful prisons.

And I waded through their ash covered remains. Until I left nothing alive in the fortress.

Yet one wasn't affected by the fires, as the blood from his flesh wept away. Tane lay dying in his cell, scarred and horribly eviscerated in parts of his body. His leg suffering from bacterial infection, could be gangrene.

Why was I alive and why was he dying?

I thought the mage wanted us all to live? A mage dominated world?

I picked up the dying carcass of the restorative arcane mage. He was too weak, and was unconscious to heal himself. He was the brink of living, and there was nothing we could do. The light of the day blinded me for a few seconds as it greeted me. The hot wind of the desert filled sweat on my face, and I felt lost as I continued back into the desert. Back where I started. Only this time with a body on my back.

_The city was alive. Lights and colours below me, ahead of me. Until the line of water, which proceeded into the ocean stopped the urbanization. My cloak fluttered in the wind, and the trees swayed peacefully in the heated wind, the mountain top was a tranquil place. _

_The boats in the distance lingered along the ocean surface, birds flew in groups around the trees and I could see every soul down there. The botanical gardens, my past school and the mall. It's the twenty first century, and everything is still alive. Everything is still the way it should be._

_Why?_

_Because I am not there._

"Stop please…"

I laid the mage down on the scorching sand. He winced against the heating stings and opened up his eyes to stare blindly into the sun. I stood nearby, watching the final moments of yet another super human. Another non human dying in a human world.

"You must go on…without me. I am already gone."

"The sun will not be merciful."

"I know…but you can still survive. You can still reach salvation; tell the world what happens here. Teach the human race of what they are doing."

"The human race is beyond redemption…"

"But you aren't…"

"Yes I am…" I whispered back into silence. I got no response, and I heard the click of the blood pounding stand still.

I looked over the sand dunes in all directions. I knew which way was home, which way went astray and I could see the pathways my life could choose.

It was only a matter of deciding what to do now.

I had seen so many people die, so many close to me. People of my kind and people of the human race. I have murdered so many, I have massacred equivalents to large cities. And yet still I roam across the barren and dying lands of the planet Earth.

There are the faces of Samantha and Kaylee.

There are the faces of Tane, of Epsilon and the soldiers of Australia.

They all look at me, with their pleading and dreadful eyes. They cry the tears of a thousand nations. They sigh in regret as they look back at the destruction they had inflicted. And they point their blaming fingers at me.

And I obey them, I destroy for them. And I die for them.

I'm standing, looking at the directions I could choose on this desert island. There is the loyal way, there is the honored way, and there was the villainous way. I could go nowhere now and be lost. I could go home, where there is no home. I could turn and walk somewhere else, and become dead to all those that remember me. Become a shadow, or even actually die.

I could turn to the world, and say "No."


	5. Hell

**Chapter 5: Hell**

"_As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."_

Streaks of darkness painted on the sky. The terror of fire and rage are lost in the eyes of the mutants that look up into the eyes of death. They see the eternally burning wrath of humankind, the race they once lived in and tortured to turn against those they once loved. Brutal science at its worst, changing the minds of humans into primitive ghouls of cannibalism and nullification.

It was radiation that twisted these souls. And it is radiation that will continue to twist the world more. Until everything is exactly the same as a patch of barren ground with cow bones embedded in the crevasses of a drought. Where nothing will stand, and all will fall. We are bound helpless by the might of the world itself, we toyed and experimented with the world, and it destroyed us in the process.

Afternoon in the capital wasteland. Clouds barely parted as the wind above became tense. The corpse of a mutated bird fell from the skies and landed in a dumpster. Main Street is left alone by the creatures of the night and darkness, dead neon lights hang above the shops and unintelligible words spout from the rusted signs.

A band of humans step onto the concrete. There were five of them, a small exploration party sent from the human settlement. Nightfall stood on top of the building, watching the blind humans step onto an extermination zone. They carried an array of weapons, brave yet futile in these regions. Guns and swords, cautious eyes watching every opening of darkness and any hint of movements around the urban ruins.

Downtown was a mess. The humans walked further, they didn't notice the creeping eyes of ghouls from buildings and hungry nostrils of werewolves from the metallic shelters. The city was alert of the new fresh food. Now it was a matter of who got the prize first. Nightfall kept an eye on all that dared moved into the vicinity.

The group was composed of a scientist, three militia soldiers, one being a woman and the other two were men. The last was a teenage girl, an odd decision when bringing an exploration party to the heart of Hell. It was the same girl that Nightfall noticed the day before. Auburn long hair and an expression on her face that symbolised endurance during these rough times.

Hungry eyes and vengeful faces loom from the darkness. The group of explorers continued their way along Main Street, until they eventually reached the park and set up a small command post. The militia kept an eye out for any intruders, while the scientist and the girl prepared some work with the scientific apparatus.

A few hours passed and the day became inevitably darker. Nightfall sat perched on a nearby roof, observing the human intruders of this lost city. The scientist was gathering information about the radiation in the area, the weather and the state of the ground he was standing on. Was not often someone would research how corrupt the land had become, did this scientist intend to restore the world to it's once averagely peaceful state?

Another hour. Hand print of a dying human down two blocks, dried blood stained the floor further on. In an alleyway, a band of gangsters had graphitized a blank wall before the war had begun. In remembrance of Hiroshima, where even the shadows of the people had been etched onto the ground, the shadow of two lovers kissing were painted. The Hiroshima lovers.

The humans packed up their camp, the wild eyes all focused on them from beyond the light. They moved out and headed further down the street. The girl paused when she thought she saw a hooded young man jump from building to building behind her. She dismissed it as mind tricks and continued on closely with the rest of the group.

They wove through the battered streets and passed the disgruntled cars, noticing the dead array of vegetation and the chaos inflicted on this world. A broken fountain held acidic water in its basin, turned black by the ashes and putrefied by the waste of monsters.

They reached the old high school, the memorial Nightfall had visited days before. They seemed safe enough, the basilisk tenants had already moved out. And they stepped onto the dried oval and watched in awe as the madness of war and humanity was discoloured before them, in the scene of a destroyed school. The buildings weathered down, the windows broken and radioactive slime stained on walls. Bones could be found in rooms, tables and desks had been crushed, chairs dismembered and computers already stolen.

Nightfall crouched on the top of the hall, looking down on the feeble humans standing in the centre of his domain. This was the majestic site, where his memories had been played out and the only emotional refuge in this shattered world we live in. The ruins of another age.

One militia decided to scout the area himself, the other two stood guard around the scientist as he prepared some more research equipment. The girl lingered nearby, until the lure of curiosity and harsh memories of her own life, forced her to explore the inner reaches of the school. She left the side of her protectors, and wandered into the darkness of the buildings. Nightfall fell into the shadows and followed her tracks.

She stood before a wall, with a ray of brisk sunlight penetrating in an upper window. Along a corridor, filled with classrooms on each side she walked, trying to ignore the dead corpses and the rusted remains of education. She eventually stepped into what used to be the school office, and sighed at the depressing sight of a photograph stained with blood.

She turned around to see the mutilated corpse of the militia that once accompanied her, the scout sent to explore the corners of the school. She stepped back, trying not to make a sound, she knew that some monsters reacted to their hearing. If they lived in this darkness, then they could be blind. Or they could be feral ghouls.

Something rustled a cardboard box in another room, the moan and wheezing of a walking corpse. Her heart pounded as she realised she had stupidly entered without a weapon or any defence. The door to the exit was nearby; she needed to get out before she got detected. But she also didn't want to be detected while leaving; there could be more than just one ghoul.

Her legs were frozen in place; there was nothing to save her here. If there was something that would save her, then it would have saved the dead man hanging from an impaled pole in front of her.

The ghoul appeared in the corridor, it could easily see the girl. Yet it was entranced, almost like it was in a dream. Its eyes fluttered violently, and its mouth was frothing. The scars and rotting flesh on the outside hung like grated skin. And it fell forward onto the messy carpet, dead and lifeless. A silver dagger protruded from its back.

The girl was frozen again. She couldn't completely understand what had happened, she had been saved but by what? Was she really safe or needed to worry about another predator?

A cape whistled in the air, and from the dark ceiling a figure dropped down. It landed on a bookshelf, elevated from the girl's level. It had no face, no eyes and only the black hole that entered into where the face should be. The cowl was strictly cloaked over the head, and black clothing like the sheer night covered the unknown assailant. It watched the petrified girl, it looked blind yet it saw more than anyone else.

"It's you…" she whispered.

"_You know who I am?"_ a deep mono tone, not displaying any expression but harsh anger and brittleness in its voice. It crouched frozen on its perch, looking down at the female human that so bravely stared back at him.

"Everyone knows about you… you're like a myth…"

He perked his head slightly, still watching the girl and absorbing the information. _"You are from that settlement, over the hills to the west,"_

She nodded slowly in response.

"_Why are you here?"_

"We…we need somewhere to stay…because we might be the last human beings alive, and we also need to shelter our scientist working on a cure for the land…"  
_"What cure?"_

"He hasn't made it yet…but he's working towards making a chemical that could reverse the effects of radiation on the vegetation…"

"_You don't sound very confident."_

"It's the only thing we have left…" her spine shivered, "the only thing we can believe in…"

"_What is the name of your settlement?"_

"It's a town…not a settlement. And it's called Hope's Stand…"

"_Ironic. How large is this 'Hope's Stand'?"_

"Uh, we have around two hundred people…"

"_And where do you fit into all this?"_

"I'm…just a survivor of all this…I just tag along and help wherever I can…" her eyes looked down as she retreated against the stare of the void.

"_Your name?"_

The question surprised her, and she looked up again at the dark crusader. She began to wonder what lay behind the nullified mask, what lay in the depths of that void.

"Kaylee."

He didn't offer a response or a reply. She was quiet after she muttered the word, and simply waited for something to happen. Or until she grew too impatient by the situation.

"Who are you?"  
_"No one."_

"I don't believe that…"

"_Your problem."_

"…are you going to help us?"  
_"I am not your protector."_

"You saved my life…"

"_Because I wanted to question you."_

"Is that it? You would have let me die if you hadn't found that reason?"

No answer, but the cold glare of the man with no face. Only the spite of the abyss that stares back into you while you gaze at the emptiness. Kaylee suddenly realised why the dead man behind her was dead, and why she was still alive. She looked into Nightfall, trying hopelessly to understand the mind that crazed inside the blackness, but she couldn't understand.

"Are you human?"

"_No."_

The immediate answer didn't satisfy the girl, she was suspicious of more to the being in front of her. He could be a deranged human, gone insane through the belief he wasn't human anymore. Yet he was dangerous, and a dark hero in the eyes of the remaining human race. If brought on the side of Hope's Stand, he would be a powerful weapon to ensure their survivability.

But that wasn't going to happen, not anytime soon. While the bleakness was still stalking through the shadows and while that empty vacuum replaces his face.

"What are you going to do now?"

"_I'm going to watch you leave this place forever. You are going to walk back to your people, tell them what you learnt today. And never step foot again in my territory."_

"You can't tell me what to do."

"_I can offer you two choices, one you will like and one you will not like."_

Kaylee stepped backwards, and the masked figure opened his eyes. As the glare of blazing sun fire glowed out from the darkness. Two dots of light, and they were nothing more. She kept her eyes on the assailant, as she took a few more steps towards the exit. She opened the door and stepped out, but when she looked through the cracked glass again, Nightfall has disappeared. Disappointed she carefully returned to the other humans, informed them of the recent death and of her talk with the unknown dark one.

They rapidly picked up their equipment, and under their oblivious attention the dark one ensured their safe return home. The monsters and ghouls struggled in hatred and agony, watching a precious meal escape from them all because of the fear of that crusader watching them in the night. They could see his face of death, and they knew it would be a lot worse if they showed themselves in the sunlight.

Kaylee stepped foot back onto the soils of Hope's Stand. She stood with her guts feeling like they were ripped up inside, and her heart was on the edge of breaking down. The sun was close to dusk, and the citizens of the last settlement on Earth continued their struggling lives. The girl looked back into the haze of the shadowed city, the tall creeping skyscrapers and the vile ocean beyond.

And Nightfall looked back at the remnants of humanity.

The factory was empty except for the scuttling rats and the dangerous lurkers. No more electricity was produced from this plant, no more energy for the giant city desperate for some light. The annihilation of life stood face to face with the ghosts of time and humanity.

The downfall of humanity loomed around in the hearts of the living; they lust for another revelation of life and a turn in odds. They wanted life, but nothing could be born from the barren wasteland. The plants and seeds refused to grow, the babies refused to live at first breathe of the toxic dust. The animals mutated away into impure creatures, or died away and became food for the monsters. It was a paradise of oblivion.

Earth is a tomb of a once great civilization. Once it had lights sparkling like decorations, even seen far in space. Once it nations and economics, it had politics and education. Now it had only the dire struggle of surviving.

Garbage of the humans lies motionless in the wind, while the whispers of the dead mourn the land. The vines constrict and squeeze the life out mammals; the thorns impale the hope of the living. The ocean has been flooded with despair and anguish.

The wretchedness of our world is revolving around the dying core. And every day we feel desperation and beg for the taste of cheerfulness in our miserable lives. Our hearts demoralize at the sight of another carcass lying at our feet, we cry when another realises life is not worth living. We do not abandon our race, because it is all we have left. We will murder our memories; back they are what we want to see again.

The humans stand vigilant as they wait for the surrender of death and destruction. Yet nothing stirs or changes, and their human nature forces it all back down on them. Relinquish their anticipation and renounce their faith.

As the dark waves spatter across the surface of a corrupted ocean, a little fish darts around searching for refuge. It was still alive despite the infection it suffered from, and the mutated horrors lurking below. Exhausted and strangling from radiation, it stopped swimming and looked up through the top of the ocean and into the sky. And for the time it realised the meaning of beauty in the cracked sky.

A rabid shark devoured the distracted fish.

The heart stricken girl felt the need to return to the city, yet she understood at the same time she had no permission from Nightfall or the leaders of her home. While pouring out the waste of the town again, near the lonely tree she looked up and saw a parchment of papers. Kaylee to her surprise had realised someone had been given a change of heart, and read her mind. She carried the pieces of paper back home, and hid them in her room under the roof of melded car doors.

The journal of the dark one, lay under her bed. The memories and life of one that survives only through the darkness of mere life are cradled in her arms. Because she was going to understand who Nightfall was and why he was this, that was her point in life. Because she never had a reason to continue living until now.

Nightfall picked up a photograph, and for the first time in years he remembered. The lost days and the life when he was a normal person, when he was a sane person. He ripped off his hood and looked at the picture with his own eyes. He could see the streaks of insane frenzy appearing in the edges of his sight, and realised his nocturnal adaptation to the night light. Anger blew through his veins, and he crushed the photograph.

Vengeance went wild, until the dark one pulled his hood of eternal nights back on. Looking down the hollowness of his city, his heart grew heavy with emotions. The shock sent him resting against a table in the apartment, when he regained his strength he smashed the table apart into two. And stormed off to his playground to murder.

Emotions flourished inside the incompetent being, anger and hatred steamed as he felt the revenge the human race preached for. The sorrow and regret arrived and encouraged him on to reveal the life that this world lacked.

And a tear drop left the cowl of darkness, the dark assailant and dark crusader left his perch on the tallest building. He ran into the clouds of the night and vowed to make the world a better place.

And he vowed to be cured of his mental disease.

Nothing stands in my way; there is nothing you can throw at me that I haven't already heard. Nothing takes me down, without it falling with me.

_Why should the tormented endure so eagerly?_


	6. Children of Earth

**Chapter 6: Children of Earth**

"_Teach us to care and not to care. Teach us to sit still."_

"_We have learnt the boundless ends of Knowledge"_

I am going to tell you a story. Not many have heard this story, but it is a story nonetheless. What makes a story? Well this story is about my people. And there a lot of my people. It is a story of what could have happened, and what did happen.

Does this story so far capture your imagination? Do you feel suddenly different because of this story?

You will see the world differently after this story.

Every story has a moral. And there is a moral to this story. This story is also long, but that's what makes a story good after all. Depends on the plot and the content though doesn't it?

This story is different to what you have read before. This story is about what is possible in this susceptible world, what can possible and what might happen in your future. There are reasons for everything; there are complications for every moment. But isn't life like that anyway?

This story begins on a planet called Earth. Earth is a planet consisting of seventy percent ocean and the rest is land. Earth contains many different species, ranging from the human to the insect. Earth is the only known planet where life exists. So as you can see, this planet Earth is very special.

Now the main inhabitants of this planet are humans. Humans are complex beings, their minds are unique for every person and their personalities are only one of a kind. One of the many pastimes for humans including making theories about life, writing about theories in life and possibly theorizing about the future and beyond what they know about their current world.

So now you know the setting to this story. Our story begins in 1950, where a tense conflict is brewing across the world, known as the Cold War. The Cold War was a competition between the eastern communist countries of the world, led by the USSR and the western capitalist countries led by the USA. People who believed in different styles of living, focused on domination of one another.

The Cold War did not result in open warfare until 2008. The war mainly consisted of espionage, economic warfare and stockpiling weapons – mainly nuclear weapons.

In 1950 though, a smaller conflict that was branched from the Cold War occurred in a country called Korea. The Korean War had begun, between the north communists and the south capitalists. It would be the start to a stronger tension between the two rival super nations.

Now coincidentally, there happened to be a group of scientists working on the islands of Hawaii. These American scientists were formed to predict the future of the war and of humankind, their aim then was to find a solution to these futuristic problems.

These scientists on one peculiar day discovered something called Global Warming. Now Global Warming wasn't supposed to be discovered, or at least the realization of its real impact until fifty years later. So these scientists were pretty shocked to see what could happen in the future of their children, and they reported their findings back to the US Government.

The US government's attention then became divided, between the Cold War and this new threat of Global Warming. The government ordered the scientists to find a cure to this Global Warming. Perhaps a chemical that could alter the sun's effects on the world or a gas that could neutralize the sun's rays? The scientists worked hard all day and night to find this one cure, which would eventually aid humanity in the days ahead. Something that could decrease the amount of sunlight rays, or maybe something that could even out the effect of the radiation and temperatures.

By 1975, the government had found a solution. A gas that could neutralize the sun's effects was discovered, and it was odorless, clear and barely detectable by anyone. Only high technical equipment specifically constructed for detecting this gas, could trace its whereabouts. It also floated with the oxygen, combining with it, yet humans couldn't be entirely dependant on the gas as they required pure air as well to breathe.

The next year global warming had become publicly aware, groups and organizations were created to make the communities more environmentally efficient, yet to no real result. The gas solution is still kept a government secret.

1981, the gas to save the world, is named Chemical Gaia, replacing its old term FX 145. The name was chosen under the basis of the Greek Goddess of life and fertility, Gaia. Experiments are taken in Hawaii to see if the gas is suitable on the topography and ecological cycle of environmental life on Earth. It has not been tested on large populations of humans yet.

1982, the experiments and Project Gaia are transported to an Antarctic Research Base to fortify security operations and to keep the whole operation a secret. 1989, the experiments taken have proven promising enough. The US decides to unleash the gas soon on the world, to spite the USSR in the Cold War and gain recognition for saving the world. The Cold War is still brewing as the expenses for Project Gaia has given USA a disadvantage and continuing the brutal and tense war. In the late year of 1989, the gas is released from the research facility in Antarctica and omitted into Earth's atmosphere.

It's 1990, and nothing dramatic has happened yet. The gas is spreading around the world, without anyone but the USA government knowing about it. Until large cases of humans are dying from sudden illnesses, instant terminal cancers and mutated brain parts. People around the world randomly die from horrible amounts of cancer and radiation, the chemical does the opposite effect on some people. Several populations suffer from mutations around the body, and the worldwide crisis becomes an epidemic of chaos and havoc.

A small percentage of affected humans, although highly infected and radiating deadly amounts of radiation, are capable of surviving. These special survivors are transported and detained to the Antarctic research facility. They are experimented on, and after three specific humans have been tested variously, the scientists realize the possible creation of super humans. These beings had mutated to a point where they continued to live but with the curse of abnormal powers. This time, all information is broadcasted into the world with the scientists realizing that they cannot hide the secret of mass murdering events.

1992, the other countries around the world have undertaken it themselves to research Chemical Gaia and the US Antarctic research facility is disbanded. The plans and creation of the gas are released for public use and research, mainly focused on these new super humans.

The super humans are named Mages, for Mutated Atomic Genetic Equilibriums. Mutated organisms that have possession of the ability to control atomic properties, altered genetic codes which allow them this possibility and they produce large amounts of radiation which is equalized by their new structure so they do not suffer fatally from it themselves.

The Mages are organized by research facilities into three categories. Ones that are capable of controlling the heat and rising temperatures of atoms, those that do the opposite and control the icy properties of atoms. And the final one was one centered in the middle, almost a neutral stand between the two other opposite categories. Each one is able to manipulate physics itself, using their brain, mental stimulation and using their body parts which have also mutated to adapt to the new form.

1993, the Mages have become celebrities; previous common folk are now national celebrities in the face of the world. They are known to the fanatic world as super heroes and titles similar. They help to develop technology around the world, with their powers focused at improving the research of physics and the physical characteristics of atomic particles. An official standard pie graph is drawn for classification of each Mage. A circle with each third separated, and each one titled either, fire, ice or arcane. New children born into this changed world have a low chance of becoming Mages themselves. Most babies simply die from the alien air they breathe in, which drastically decreases the population of the world. Children born from Mages have the highest chance of surviving and the highest chance of becoming a Mage as well.

In 1994 a boy is born and abandoned in a hospital. Mages around the world are incorporated towards making the world a better place.

The first few signs of tension appear between countries; some people start to believe that the Mages are the new humans and are slowly taking over with natural selection. Others believe that their country will use them in war against them; one Mage is equal to ten atomic warheads. In 1996, schools built specifically for Mages to be studied and educated are built. Mages are encouraged to live in these special schools instead of with the normal public society. Most families of the Mages instead chose to let their children follow normal lives and ignore the specially created schools.

1999, religious fanatics begin prophesies and rejecting rumors of the Mages. They are convinced the Mages are spawns of the Devil and have come to Earth to shadow it towards temptation and evil. A few town skirmishes outbreak in European countries. A few discreet rebellions of governments in small nations in South East Asia, a few revolts led by rebellious Mages.

The Battle of the Rising Sun occurs in the year 2000, on New Year's Day. It marks a historic moment in Vietnam, in Saigon and around the world. The first Mage ever to die in a war, dies on this day. Marks a symbolic meaning for the rest of the world as they begin to see the Mages as threats to safety and military targets.

As the world continues on the brink of annihilation and conflict, the USSR begins the next world war by invading Eastern Europe in 2008. The Mages are sent around the world, as wars and fronts arise, new alliances are formed, betrayals occur and the world is led into the fountain of chaos. They are used and known as the tools of war. They serve their dedicated faction, and most die off in the bloody wars as WW3 continues on.

The largest religious organization dedicated towards the eradication of Mages, constructs a large facility using technology discovered from the help of Mages. The religious organization is known as the DHO to the world, The Demon Hunter's Organization. They build an atomic detonator, believing that the world was better off dying now and going to heaven as believers rather than be cursed slowly on the dying fields at the feet of an evil Mage.

The atomic detonator is unleashed in 2015, and it sends the world into an apocalypse. With the power and radiation of several nuclear bombs hitting every single corner of the world, those not already torn from the war, are killed instantly or mutated into horrible beasts of carnage and terror. World War 3 ends in 2015, and in the wreckage of an exhausted world.

The land dies away and all life leaves the planet. The world had become a global Armageddon, and hell had finally come to the real world.

_In the wreckage of a civilization, in the haze of death and lost in the shade of life. A single being stands vigilant and loyal to the human values; he stands as a dark crusader seeking a line to peace and the reincarnation of the planet Earth._

That was the story of our world; it is a series of unfortunate events. Events that eventually transpired into the end of our world and planet.

It makes you think, what horrible people could have been living in that time that would send it into such a fatal crisis. Who do you blame, from what you know now?

That is arguable, but still someone needs to be blamed. In the end, maybe you should turn to yourself, the human race, and realize that the only one to blame is you.


	7. Knightfall

**Chapter 7: Knightfall**

"_The night is always darkest before the dawn. And I promise you there will be a dawn."_

Murky clouds, green waves flow against the broken pier. Mutated fish nibble against the wood, crates float in the oil spills. The warehouses are destroyed, piles of wreckage along the battered coast. We lie as dusty corpses along the roads to damnation.

Skyscrapers fallen like shattered statues, flags of a proud nation ripped in the wind and spears of hatred. Goals of life, morals of values, and the whole meaning of 'humane', have become extinct. There is nothing left of the human race, but straggling survivors of the nuclear holocaust.

Nothing.

Where do those run, who have nowhere to hide? They fall like children falling at the arms of a serial killer. We cannot turn invisible; our past is etched here like a grave stone. The wastes of humanity, crumbled before terror and their own greed.

Nightfall walks along the remnants of Market Street. He carries with him two silver blades in each hand. He watches through his faceless cowl the buildings as they pass by. He can smell the stench of ugliness.

It was getting closer.

The derelict houses and the rotting walls. The shirt impaled on the fence pole. A pile of decomposed leaves scattered across the front dead lawn. The crumbled bricks lying at the mercy of radiation and decay.

The shadows creep along the nightmare. They live tormented in the never ending illusion of life. And they defy all the suffering; they defend against the greed of death. For their own purposes and their own greed.

Nightfall sneaks through the hallway of the office building. The two sentinel guards lie dead at the entrance, the ghouls put on patrol have failed to report back. He stealths through each room, watching for anything living and ignoring the stench of the walking corpses, the smells they leave behind in their dens.

There ghouls had become intelligent. They were evolving, rapidly and due to the chaotic effects of radiation. They had realized the advantage of learning, and remembering what they once were. How they lived, how they played, and how they killed.

They were becoming too intelligent for their own good, too powerful in numbers and organization. They could learn to overpopulate the world, if only they knew how to reproduce. The female ghouls were sterile, and there was little difference physically who was male and female. They all looked the same, like piles of wretched bodies that decided to walk again.

The ghouls were congregating in the basement. They were huddled all around each other, waiting and listening for their leader to approach them. Almost one hundred ghouls hiding away in this basement the size of a warehouse. Their waste and dripping flesh scattered across the floor they walked on. They all looked towards their new leader, the smartest one that would bring them victory in a world they deserved.

Nightfall hid in the ceiling, the pipes that extended along it. He watched the large number of abominable humans gather around. They looked eager and hungry; all looked ready to change into something dangerous.

"My friends, welcome today! Welcome to one of the many dens of what those humans call us, 'ghouls'!"

"We are gathered here today, because something very special has occurred. You are all very special, because we today are finally going to become the dominators and the rulers of this world. No longer shall we hide away in the darkness from monsters, humans and wraiths. We shall form together, and destroy all that oppose us! Because they all fear us, we are deadly, but we don't realize it. We can have anything we want, we shall just work together to get."

"I am your leader; I will bring you all to victory. I am not the ultimate leader, no! There is one far more terrible above me, yet he is cunning and ruthless against those who don't follow him. Have no worry fellow ghouls, we are on his side! And he offers his blessing and care for all of us. In return he asks us to fight in the name of our species, and to bring together our united race!"

Nightfall jumped from his perch and landed behind the talking ghoul. In all his years serving the dark city, murdering the ghouls and eradicating filth, he had never seen before a ghoul talk like a human. His suspicions were correct, the ghouls were gaining intelligence, and they were getting too dangerous now.

"_This has gone too far."_

The ghoul leader turned around and smiled at Nightfall. The parade of ghouls in the basement went crazy at the sight of their mythical tormentor, some nearly running in fear and others compelled for revenge and encouraged from the precious speech.

"Ah, the famous and infamous Nightfall. I suppose you heard the whole speech then? What do you have to say about us finally reaching the world we desire?"

"_It is not your world. You are just the mutated scum born from the barren earth."_

"Then whose world is it huh? The humans? The humans! Look what they did to this Earth! Look around you and see what they did to this planet! Can you see now, they had their chance and they ruined it!"

"_It is their world to destroy, and their world to repair."_

"No no, the age of humans is long gone. They are practically extinct now, you know this, and you've seen this. Yet we ghouls, there are plenty of us. And we live perfectly in this terrain and environment. It is our turn to rule the world, and we will rule it better than those vile humans. Look at me, look at my face! This is what the humans created! I can make something better with my own hands, and we will!"

"_How?"_

"First we rally together all the ghouls, in the area. We form a force that the world hasn't seen for decades. And under the guidance of our great leader we will move out and wipe out any remaining humans, and conquer each parchment of land as we travel the world."

"_Who is your great leader?"_

"He is a beast and a monster of hatred and darkness, yet he sees salvation for us. He is terrible in the eyes of his enemies. Even you, the living shadow would fear him… He has no name; for he is greater than names…he will bring us to victory, even if he has to do it with his own teeth."

"_And what happens if I murder you all now?"_

"Our death makes no difference, no it doesn't. We are but a mere sample of what armies lie in waiting, the great leader is smart…he knows you…he knows what you are capable of. Sometimes he even watches you in the night…there are millions of other dens and ghouls, and they will destroy the human race, starting with the humans over the hills to the west….they are the first test of how dedicated we are…"

"_I enjoy meeting your leader, when he is lying dead on the ground and vulgar blood spilling from his brains."_

"Huh? What you…"

The ghoul's head was cut off cleanly, the decapitated limb rolled off into the crowds of ghouls watching stunned and silently. They had witnessed a conversation, where they had learnt a lot. But now they came back to reality where they relied on their basic instincts to survive.

They drew their claws and teeth and charged at the darkness ahead. Nightfall drew his other sword and flew with rage onto the incoming crowd. Twin blades spun the sea of carcasses, and they all fell slowly, they all eventually succumbed to the state they should have stayed.

Dead.

A twirl, and blades danced in the fray of anger and trepidation. A vindictive strike at the ghoul's chest, an eye was gouged and the hands of another were amputated.

These monsters were not the new humans. There was no such thing as fatigue in Nightfall's world. He would not allow an abomination to claim the ruins of this planet.

Over his dead body.

A jump and a spin in mid air with swords swiftly cutting down any carcass that would grow closer. Their claws grabbed through the air, their hands tried to hold him. He was too quick, appearing now like a blur in the midst of time. The eyes of the sun were clearly visible, and those that looked deep felt the call of fear and revenge. The sword slid into the demented head, and ripped apart the scalp. Another dodge of their treacherous claws and teeth, another rapid counter attack. A kidney shot and their lungs were ruptured.

He eviscerated their already mutilated bodies. And he let out all the emotions he had been hiding, the ones he cradled and ignored.

All the anger and the sorrow.

He unleashed it in rage, and ripped apart the race of ghouls. They will not know the meaning of mercy. And they will never know the expression of peace and rest.

Until one hundred zombie bodies had fallen at his feet.

The piles of corpses began to fill, the others began to flee. Their attack of Hope's Stand would occur soon, there was little sense of patience in these desecrations of life.

He should intervene and save the struggling humans. Why? He wasn't supposed to be part of them; he wasn't to have nothing with them. They were humans.

And he wasn't human.

_Earth has been destroyed. The planet doesn't exist anymore. And you are the last human alive in the whole universe. You had escaped on the last escape pod, and are flying through space away from the shattered floating remains of the once beloved planet._

_You suddenly realize that you are the last human in the whole world._

_What can you do? There is no other to reproduce with, no other to talk to, you might very well be the last living thing in the whole entity of existence._

_What will happen when there is no such thing as life?_

_Then there will be no such thing as death, because you need the other to have one. And there will be nothing, nothing at all. You need someone to realize it all, to actually be there. It won't be a world, it won't be empty, because you need a living conscious to actually understand and realize it all. You need something to witness it, or someone to imagine and think about it. _

_And it will be nothing._

_Your escape shuttle crash lands on a moon. You see out your window that you are wedged between some rocks in a crater, and you cannot move at all. You are stuck in that wedge of rocks your whole life, stuck in the escape pod._

_What would you do?_

_Let's say you have enough air to live for another few years, and the same with food and water. Or let's say you can live alive for another few days._

_Would you live to that extent, or just die now?_

_Is it worth suffering the agony of your lost race, or are you better off joining them?_

_Maybe, having something, even if it is so insignificant and horrible, is better off than having nothing at all. Maybe you should savor those last few days, maybe you might not be the last human in the world after all?_

_You won't know until you've lived to your limit._

_Even if you are lost in a depressing suffering._

_Because maybe you are better off like that than not feeling anything at all._

Nightfall left the den of ghouls. He walked back to his tall perch, with two bloody blades and a vengeance marked in his glowing eyes. No creature dared confront the vengeful shadow of hate.

Back at his secret home, he equipped more blades and throwing daggers. Another encouraging look in the mirror, and a moment of silence as he stared back at the image. And he slowly put his black hooded void back on for the last time. The eyes of destructive light looked back into the cracked mirror. And he saw nothing in return.

The cape swirled as he turned, and the shadow left his room.

Creatures ran around the city in bloodthirsty excitement, monsters were more active than usual. Ghouls raced around town searching for more dens and communities. Today, was going to mark a special day for the mutated remnants of Earth's recent holocaust. The eyes of the abomination leader looked down on the minions of dust and decay, and he watched as his dream of atrocities and disasters slowly became reality.

Today, would be the day when the humans were finished off.

They had their chance at life, and they failed. Who were they to have another chance? Another chance would send this world into more turmoil, this was a new age.

The age of the Ghouls.

Toppled rusty black motorbike abandoned on the street side. A bike left stranded on the front lawn to deteriorate. Blood stains on the shop window lies in the background. The dead piles of pet animals at the back of the room and the newly mutated monster slowly consuming them. The deadly skirmishes of humans are still traceable in the alleyways.

Ripped red dress hanging on the spikes like a tattered flag. The memorials of soldiers who died in World War 3 are standing in the centre of the cemetery. The statues of renowned soldiers and mages watch like guardians the past memories and the struggles of war. War that led to this.

A soldier holding his rifle on his shoulder. A girl in robes and a beautiful face, holding parchments of stone engraved ice. Another soldier holding his helmet out to catch rain.

And a boy with a large cape, looking back in time at his creation. The furious look of burning wrath and the racing flames that appear from his hands are lost in the weathered graves.

No one remembers the brave souls that tried so hard to prevent this calamity. Why? Because in the end they never prevented it. And there was no left to remember them.

We are all lost in our race of time and life.

Nightfall stepped onto the dead fields, and paced up the hills. His heavy cloak following like a shadow behind him. It was the dawn, and he was suffering already from the mild light. The sun was building on the other side of the cloudy walls.

Over the hill, and he stood close to the lonely tree. The town of Hope's Stand was still asleep, only the dreary soldiers stood outside awake. Their rifles held close like the meaning and resolution to all things.

The dark one, climbed his favourite tree and crouched upon the strong branch. Looking down and watching over the human race, like a guardian angel. The sleeping remains of life.

Of the real life.

Minutes passed in silence, and the sun was rising. The darkness was still strong; the clouds held intact and filtered away the healthy life. Nightfall kept his steady watch over the denizens of the settlement. He realized he couldn't help himself from saving them.

The humans wouldn't survive an attack. They were too few in numbers, and lacked the right resources and defenses.

But the ghouls didn't want to murder them all, they wanted some as slaves. The ghouls would kill the strong humans, declare the earth as theirs and then continue on their bloody rule as dominant creatures of this sundered land. The slaves would be their forced pets, and act as reproducing objects for the sterile ghoul race. Only the humans had the gift of making new life, and these ghouls would take that to its advantage.

Nightfall would not allow it. He would die before all this before him became a ruined pit.

A girl left her home, an early waker. She stepped around, looking at the barren ground and depressingly hoping for some sign of life. She looked up again at the covered sunrise, and then over to the lonely tree. The blazing eyes stared back.

She proceeded in caution towards Nightfall; daytime wasn't his time of the day. He could be easily seen by the girl. Kaylee stopped before the tree, her hair all let out long and her eyes watching in awe as she watched the living shadow.

"What are you doing here?"

"_You and your people are under a large threat."_

"From what?"

"_The ghouls have organized themselves, and are aiming to destroy your town."_

"The ghouls?"

"_The living dead."_

"Why…why should I believe you? I thought you wanted nothing to do with us…"

"_You don't have to believe me; you only have to warn your own people."_

"Why don't you warn them yourself?"

"_They don't trust me, they trust you."_

"But do I trust you?"

"_No. But you know what is right."_

"I'm not too sure about that…"

"_If you don't _warn_ them. You may be forfeiting the last settlement of humans on this planet."_

"If I do warn them, what will you do?"

"_I'll help you survive the attack."_

"Is that all?"

"_You want more?"_

"I want to know who you are."

"_You know who I am."_

"…no I don't…"

"_Then you will never know."_

"…I'll warn everyone else, and tell them what you said. But I want to talk to you more…after this attack of the ghouls…"

"_If you survive…"_

"You will make sure I survive…" the girl looked back at her waiting town, and looked back at the tree. To find the shadow gone and only a lonely tree standing before her.

"I hope…"

Kaylee stumbled back to her settlement and woke the other members of her society. Nightfall watched from the high hills, while the dead grass swayed in the wind around him. And the advancing hordes of ghouls began their march deep in the city. The whole city stirred, as the rage of the dead headed out. To destroy all hope.

_Nightfall fell on the earth. The dark one could see the world again, but from a different view. He saw the expanse of destruction; he could see all the last squabbles of life. And he could see the misery painted on the ground._

_But he saw where he stood in the chaos of all things._

_He understood that no one knew his real name, his new name. Because they only knew him as fear, as the blinding darkness and the night that they endured every day. _

_They had only heard a mispronunciation of the dark avenger._

_He wasn't Nightfall, because the night was left in an endless cycle of darkness. He had once seen the light, yet still he had fallen. He had once known the emotion of love and caring; he had once defended the weak and honored all life. Yet still he fell._

_He was once a knight in shining armour._

_But he was still cast down in his dark downfall._

_He was now known as Knightfall._

The militia and arms of Hope's Stand stood tall, as the hordes and armies of the ghouls marched towards them. They came pouring over the hills, from the dark little holes in the city. Straight from the stench of the sewers and from the tainted ground of Mother Nature.

The ghouls waged on, they were here to claim the world for themselves.

Humans stand vigilant, heavily outnumbered but still vigilant in the mission to survive. Knightfall stood near the lonely tree again, and watched as the madness swarmed towards the town.

The girl known as Kaylee looked out from the shelter of her house, she saw the dark figure on the hill. And she trembled as she observed the ghoul armies arriving over the hills.

The hearts of the humans pounded in fear and in the mess of their shattered lives. The skulls of the ghouls heated in anticipation and bloodlust.

The two forces of humanity and ghouls watched the other in death glares.

The armies were still, and they restrained themselves to a motionless lock. Their demon and bloodshot eyes watching the valor of humans fall before their feet.

Today was the day of the Ghouls.

And nothing could change that fact.

The battle for the last humans began. Guns and rifles fired away at the charging zombies, their bodies piled but still the onslaught of walking dead approached. They screamed war taunts and yelled berserk roars. The ghouls left their sane minds and entered the burning frenzy, they crashed into the humans and ripped apart the blood and flesh.

The humans fired and hacked back, they fell slowly to the ghouls that penetrated the perimeter. The madness of war and battle continued on, the ammunitions would eventually die down and the humans would become vulnerable.

They fell dead and became lifeless objects.

Knightfall watched the chaos unfold.

Heads of the human soldiers went flying; their guns kept firing on those that dare defile the fallen. The remaining militia kept shouting for support, and to keep killing the ghouls.

The humans couldn't run, they were all surrounded now.

The black caped crusader disappeared from his tree. And sprinted down the hill in rage and encouraged anger. He would not let the ghouls reach the girl.

A jump and he fell into the pile of living dead, blades swung out and cut down their legs. His eyes became blurs of light in the darkness that revolved on the spot; the ghouls were too slow for the rapid shadow. They fell at the feet of the avenger on his futile crusade.

The humans noticed the new arrival and their morale lifted slightly. Knightfall charged into the large crowd of his sworn enemies, and began the large massacre of more undead. His blades swung, and daggers flew from his hands at any out of reach.

The ghouls were paralyzed, and slowly were becoming beaten back by the undying shadow fighting for the humans.

Until the largest abomination entered the battlefield. A gigantic monster, about three stories high waddled with crushing footsteps arrived and looked down upon the humans and the dark one. He roared the demand of destruction.

The leader and plotter of the ghouls and their domination ran into the piles of ghouls and stampeded towards Knightfall. The abomination was a pile of dead human parts sewed together, and malformed to form a living creature. Five human eyes looked out from the deformed head, three arms, with one carrying a butcher's cleaver and the rest of the body a pile of ribs and decayed flesh.

Knightfall dodged the crushing blow of the abomination. He rolled along the barren ground and threw daggers into the rotting pile of flesh. It roared in retaliation. And threw its arms down on the sundered land, Knightfall was too quick for the rising giant.

Yet the hordes of ghouls continued to pour down on the human settlement, and towards the distracted Knightfall. He murdered any that came too close, and still aimed to avoid the death strike of the abomination.

Kaylee watched in horror as her saviour battled the forces of Hell and death away from her home. She cried in disbelief that such monsters and myths could become true. And she mourned the losses of human warriors stand in a line against the incoming ghouls.

Knightfall darted across, and front flipped over a ghoul, decapitating its head in the process.

His arms were growing weaker, and his legs felt like falling apart. His mind was lacking fresh air, and his eyes began to grow delirious.

He had never felt such weakness and fatigue in all his years. He had never seen so many endless lines of ravaging ghouls in his life.

He could only fight on, until he lay mortified at the feet of an evolved monster.

The dark crusader stopped, he looked up at the devilish smile of the abomination. And the claw of the monster ripped him down, the knight fell to the ground weakened by the blow. He lay crumpled along the sundered ground, staring at the dead earth. His heart was still beating; his lungs struggled to gulp down the toxic air. And the feet of his oppressor moved forward, a gigantic arm picked him up, and threw him forward. The shadow crashed against the rocks and the ground.

He couldn't move, all his stamina and strength had left his body. He did what he could to stop the hordes of evil and madness, and it wasn't enough.

The abomination slowly walked towards his dying arch enemy.

The eyes of a young male, looked closely at the dust of earth. His face stuck and drained of energy. Steps of death came closer, a gigantic butchering axe held high. He noticed the detail of the barren dirt, the complexity of life and in the final moments of life he finally understood what love was.

And how such a feeling could be so strong even in a world like this.

The face of Kaylee was strong, and the memories flushed back into his lost mind. The shadow disappeared and he transformed into his real form.

The ground trembled; the abomination stopped its advance and watched as the body turned bright. The blackness suddenly changed colour into a blinding light, the figure rose above the ground being lifted by an unknown force. The clouds parted above, letting the light into the patch of new life.

The ghouls stepped back, their eyes hurting from the light and the abomination stared in anger at the disappeared body. It looked like a burning angel was stuck in chains of fiery steel, floating above the dead earth. It opened its eyes to look upon the plain covered in radioactive dead, and it suddenly knew what needed to be done.

A large flash of light swept across the whole area, the wave of brightness flooded the city and Hope's Stand. When it faded away, the ghouls looked up at a terrifying sight, a monster they had never seen before.

One that didn't clamber through the night, and rely on the substance of darkness to live. One that didn't feel the urgency of bloodshed, and one that had no place in this world of hatred and agony.

A dragon of constructed purely of fire loomed over the armies of dead. It was composed only of living flames, long wings stretched overhead; the flickering fire raced across and formed the whole body. It had no organic parts; it had no flesh and no blood. It was only pure eternally living fire. The titan of flames, landed on the earth. It was taller than the abomination, it was stronger than any being to ever step on this wretched planet.

The ground beneath its feet burnt away from the intensity, the desecrated land screamed in pain from the claws of fire. The humans watched silent in awe as the mythical creature stood elegantly, with fire and flames spouting constantly from its body. The ghouls cowered in terror from their new enemy, and abomination snarled aggressively at the monster defying all laws of existence.

The dragon blew upon the earth, and waves of blazing fire rushed onto the ghouls. They screamed, as the fire melted down their limbs and they were crushed by the sheer temperature.

The heat swelled, and rushed out along the plains and hills. And the dragon rushed forward, its long tail sweeping along the ground and burning up the remains of dead body parts. The abomination charged into the flames and fell back scorched by the sudden touch. The dragon swiftly swerved around, and crunched its fiery teeth into the abomination of life.

The living fire picked up the carcass and crushed it apart with fire and new born strength. And the ghouls and zombies began to flee in terror and horror. The rage of the dragon blew again; the blazing wrath consumed the running dead.

Until there was nothing left but the flames of the dead, and the sun burnt ground. The dragon turned around and stepped back towards the humans. They watched it approach, realizing that there nothing they could to do oppose the titanic beast.

The dragon blew into shards of light again, and it disappeared into the haze of bright lights. The white void collapsed and the face of a boy looked into the remnants of humanity. His eyes still glowed like his face once did, but only because his eyes were made of solid fire. His dark clothes were lying in tattered, singed and scalded from his inner fire. His face was entranced, scar along his eye and black hair unkempt from sweat and fatigue.

Kaylee stepped out from her shelter, and walked past the dazed soldiers. Their guns abandoned on the ground, and their hearts swelled in amazement. She looked at the boy standing alone in the field of strife, and tears bellowed from her face.

"Matthias…"

Knightfall looked into the eyes of the girl he once knew, memories from long ago. The face of the pretty girl he once knew a long time ago, before when the war began. He had changed so much since then, scarred and deranged from all the wars, and from his powers.

He had changed so much; he became a living shadow of his past.

And he only changed when the need became desperate, when he was dying at the feet of another mutated abomination. He resorted back to his old ways, as the destructive mage of the south. As the Flame of the South and the Inferno, yet now only known as Knightfall. His name didn't matter, only his actions did.

The fire faded from his eyes and he looked upon the humans with his real eyes. He saw the crying girl in front of him; he felt her sorrow and disbelief for a heartbroken child. He looked at the humans and knew their desperate struggle to renew life in this broken world. He realized the futility of bringing this world back to the way it once was, he accepted that they had brought this world into its madness, and he felt deeply sorry. The scientist working so hard in the back might make some progress, and he wished him the best luck he could offer.

Knightfall turned and saw the parched remains of the armies he had annihilated. He saw the overshadowing environment of the dead city, the empty buildings and the rotting streets. He realized he had once been like that, but now he was a new person. And he had no place here.

The citizens of Earth had forgiven the mage that stood on front of them; they needed him to continue their old way of life. But they also knew he would not accept their offer, because he wasn't a human, and he didn't belong here.

The girl wept more, and she tried to beg for the mage to remain, to no avail. Silently, like the night and like the expanse of the universe as it watched the disaster of Earth orbit the empty vacuum, Knightfall walked away.

The exile stepped way from humanity, leaving it as a hero and as an outcast. The mages never had their place on Earth; they were too powerful for the greed of humanity. Yet it was the humans that created them.

Because it is only human nature.

The cloudless day bloomed overhead, the light of dawn flashed down on the denizens of Earth. The humans turned their backs on the self exile, and continued their goal of recreating their once beautiful world.

The shadow of the day was gone, only to be replaced by the new bright lights. Humanity may have failed again, but it was only natural for it to try again.

We don't realize the enormity of our futility, or the pointlessness of our lives that will one day die away. We don't know where our race will go in the chaos of our own self emotions. We know nothing.

_But the challenges of our Glorious Struggle._

_No rest for the hated, no peace for the unjust._


	8. Epilogue

**So who's to Blame?**

People often would ask the question today, back in World War 3, what exactly caused it and who do we blame for it?

Immediately from educational intuition, those people say there are two possible groups: the Russians and the Mages.

The Russians because they initiated the first few invasions on Eastern Europe. Thus beginning the world wide as a chain reaction and becoming the dominant nation for a short period of time. The Mages are blamed because the Russians only saw advantage in their conquest by using them, they are also used as tools of war and most say they just should have killed themselves or someone should have only targeted them.

But we here at Hope's Stand believe in a different conclusion. We have seen the terrors of war and the destruction the human race has faced, and we have survived it all. We stand here today, as soldiers of a broken world and shattered fragments of our human nature. We live on, because of our stubbornness and vigilance in even the most challenging hours.

The War began when the Russians invaded Eastern Europe. Why did they attack and why did the rest of the world respond aggressively? They attacked because they had a new weapon, the Mages, the rest of the world attacked because they had Mages as well. So why are there Mages? The Americans made them with their Gaia Project failing horribly. Why did the Americans create Chemical Gaia in the first place? Because they discovered something that would drastically change the climate and possibly destroy the world in the future, Global Warming. And why is there something called Global Warming?

Because of us, me the writer, you the reader and the rest of the human race.

We are the blame to everything, and we cannot help it despite the amount of effort we try to change the future. Humans and human nature that drives this race, is the blame for everything.

We cannot change human nature; otherwise you won't have humans anymore. You would have a planet full of drones and robots. As long as we have words that mean "war" and "hate" we will always know the meaning behind those words, and as long those meanings exist, the reality of hate and war will also exist in our world. We realise the futility of trying to change the world into a perfect utopia, because of our sheer expanse of knowledge and the fact that as long as we have a meaning for "peace" we will never purely achieve that point in universe. If we know about something, even an idea then it exists. And if it exists even only inside our minds, it is possible. If it is possible then we are doomed in achieving to making it impossible.

The Mages are only a result of our actions, our selfishness and greed caused this world to rot, and Mages are only destructive messengers of Mother Terra. They are an example of what we are deep down, who we as a race are to be and are now.

The Americans only reacted to the dire urgency of trying to preserve our beautiful planet; can you blame them for trying to cover up our own mistakes?

The Russians continued the inevitable possibility of war, encouraged by the Mages and the weakened Americans. War and destruction would have occurred anyway, whether now or in a few years. Would we have found a safer alternative to all our problems in the future? Who knows, we only know that we didn't this time.

All cycles in the end lead back to us, the humans. We are the protectors of our world, the custodians of our land, explorers of the universe and destroyers of civilizations. And we have emotions and feelings which control our minds and lives, our reactions to the world around us. We are a reflection of the world around us. We cannot blame the world around us for being who we are, because we are the blame for the world, for being how it is.

And that is the futility of our lives and existence.

**Epilogue**

The residents of Hope's Stand continue life, after the events of Knightfall. They are given heart by the knowledge that someone out there was looking after them. And the hard working scientist continues his quest to search for a cure.

Yet in 2024, in the month of March. They eventually discover the long lost Holy Grail, the cure for death and destruction. An anti-radiation chemical that could reverse the process of the barren wasteland and offer the planet another chance.

**In the year of the Dragon, 2024, on the 16****th**** of March. The restoration of Earth begins.**

**The End of the March of the Dragon**

_And we know not the Horrors of Agony_

_But the challenges of our Glorious struggle_

_We are lost in the transgression of Hate_

_Our Darkest hour is our beacon of Hope_

_We have learnt the endless bounds of Knowledge_

_We are stranded in the phase of their Imagination_

_Why should the tormented endure so eagerly?_

_No rest for the hated, no peace for the unjust_


End file.
